Hey Guys and Gals! A nutty brown ale brewed with roasted acorns. Makes 5 gallons.
Ingredients
6 lb amber liquid malt extract
8 oz crystal 60L malt, crushed (steeping)
1 lb shelled acorns
1 oz Fuggles hops (60 min)
0.5 oz East Kent Goldings hops (15 min)
1 pack Nottingham ale yeast
Priming: 1 1/4 cups dry malt extract or 3/4 cup priming sugar
Directions
1. Leach the acorns first. Raw acorns are full of bitter tannin. Chop them and soak in several changes of hot water until the water runs clear and a piece no longer tastes bitter.
2. Dry them and roast at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, until brown and fragrant. Crush coarsely.
3. Steep the crystal malt and acorns in a grain bag in 3 gallons of water at 155 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the bag.
4. Bring to a boil, take off the heat and stir in the extract. Return to a boil.
5. Boil 60 minutes. Fuggles at the start, Goldings with 15 minutes left.
6. Cool, transfer to the fermenter, top off to 5 gallons, aerate and take a gravity reading.
7. Pitch the yeast at about 68 degrees. Ferment 2 weeks.
8. Prime, bottle and cap. Store at 75 degrees for at least the first week to carbonate.