Has anyone ever made malt extract w/ acorns?

[rtogio]

Hey all!

This is probably question for the more advanced/adventurous brewers out there.

Has anyone ever made a malt extract that used acorns in place of barley?

I ask because there seems to be countless attempts by people to make beer out of acorns. And out of all the (mostly faileD) attempts, no one has ever proposed making malt extract out of them.

Also, acorns are actually quite similar to barley in terms of composition. They have a similar amount of starch to barley post-malt and, according to some start-up food manufacturers in Germany, when they sprout they convert that starch into a smilar malted sugar.

Any input is greatly appreciate. Please let me know if it's posible or if I'm off my rocker.

 

[noladom]

Sorry to reply without an answer but I've been interested in this as well. I never thought to make the malt with them though. I thought because of their bitterness to add them to the boil with hops. Guess I should take a deeper look if most have failed.

 

[unionrdr]

They're bitter because they're high in tannins. The native Americans made flour out of them for fry bread & the like. But they soak them a few times to soak the tannins out,then dry them in the hot sun before grinding them. There's one species of oak out west that produces a low-tannin variety of acorns,but I forget the name. you'd have to google it.

 

[CastleHollow]

I didn't make an extract with acorns, but I had really good success including them in a mash for an American brown ale. Was quite a PITA preparing them, however. Lots of boiling water baths and then roasting to extract all of the tannins. Not sure I'd do it again, but it scored pretty well in a recent competition.