Nuts!

[mountainbrewer]

Okay, so I'll bet there's a reason why it isn't done or you'd be seeing all kinds of recipes using nuts as a fermentable. Probably real simple too...but will somebody tell me if it can be done?I have this mental flavor image of a pinon (pine nut) flavored brew using pale malt as a base. Out here in New Mexico we have pinon flavored coffee. Man is it good! How 'bout it? Can you mash nuts?
Wayne

[jayhawk]

You might be able to mash nuts (ouch!), but I don't know if you would get a true nutty flavour in the end flavour. You would surely get a lot of oils out of the nut and these would affect the beer's head retention. I think that a beers nuttiness is really a function of the kilning of the malts used in the recipe. I have tried toasting malt once and it added a subtle nutty flavour. Palmer's "Howtobrew.com" has a section on toasting base malts. Good luck.