Nettle beer - the time is here!

Darkginger

My field has started its annual sprouting of huge swathes of nettles - so this morning I went out and picked a kilo of them with a view to making nettle beer (they're boiling away as I type). This'll be my first attempt - am just making a gallon to see how it goes (plus I got fed up with picking them) - anyone else trying this at the moment?

The basic recipe is 1 kilo of nettle tops, 1 lb sugar plus about 3 oz demerara sugar, 8 pints water, 1 tsp cream of tartar, the juice and zest of 2 lemons, and baking yeast (adapted from a recipe found online for 40 pints of the stuff). I'm boiling the nettle tops in the water for 15 mins, then will strain into a demijohn after it's cooled, with the other ingredients - apart from the yeast - already in there. Then pitch in the yeast, give it all a good swirl round, fit a bubbler, and wait for a week before bottling. It's supposed to be drinkable 7 days later.

If anyone else is giving this a go, it would be interesting to compare results.

BeerNut

cavedave did this a couple of years ago.

Here's how it went.
And here's what he did with it.

Good luck!

Darkginger

Well...erm..that's encouraging . Pleased to see that at least mine's the same colour - I read somewhere that it should be green, and it most definitely isn't. The husband has already commented on the smell - which I think is more like spinach than death, so far, but then again to some people those smells are one and the same.

I'll let you know how it comes out - my slugs turned their noses up at Smithwick's, and I'm not about to waste vodka on them - they could get lucky with the nettle beer though

Darkginger

Progress report - after VERY vigorous bubbling to start with, three days later it's slowed down almost to a stop, and I'm thinking about bottling tomorrow. Being the impatient and curious soul I am - I just tasted it - and I'm rather amazed - it tastes like beer! Nothing there to dislike at all - the original sweetness has gone, and I suppose it's a bit like a lager. Doesn't taste at all 'vegetabley' nor lemony, surprisingly enough - just 'beery'. Very palatable. Assuming no disasters over the next week or so, I think the slugs will be unlucky this time!

Still time to pick young, tender nettles, so I'll start another gallon or so off tomorrow.

Mashtun

Darkginger wrote: »

Progress report - after VERY vigorous bubbling to start with, three days later it's slowed down almost to a stop, and I'm thinking about bottling tomorrow. Being the impatient and curious soul I am - I just tasted it - and I'm rather amazed - it tastes like beer! Nothing there to dislike at all - the original sweetness has gone, and I suppose it's a bit like a lager. Doesn't taste at all 'vegetabley' nor lemony, surprisingly enough - just 'beery'. Very palatable. Assuming no disasters over the next week or so, I think the slugs will be unlucky this time!

Still time to pick young, tender nettles, so I'll start another gallon or so off tomorrow.

Man it's nice when somethin works out

Chicken Run

I made some a couple of years ago using Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipe.

Fool

It was minging, sorry

KJ

I've never even heard of beer from nettles. I would love to try it. I had seaweed ale before. Tasted quite salty as expected but not too unpleasant.

BeerNut

Hall & Woodhouse make a commercial one you sometimes see here, but it's a bit bland and not very nettley, IMO.

Darkginger

I think being "not nettlely" is probably A Good Thing. I'm about to bottle mine now, and looking forward to drinking it next week. Nettle beer is an ancient recipe, and I guess it would never have been passed down if it gave consistently bad results. After all I'd read about it being awful, I was so surprised yesterday!

If anyone's thinking about giving it a go - the only expense is the sugar (assuming you have cream of tartar and lemons in your kitchen), so why not try it? You might be lucky and come out with something rather good.

BeerNut

Darkginger wrote: »

I'm about to bottle mine now

After less than a week of fermentation? Are you sure it's finished? Are you keeping the bottles in a concrete bunker?

Darkginger

Yep, them's the instructions - bottle after 3 days, drink after another 7. It's in PET bottles, so any explosions should be - well not as bad as if it were glass. Bottles are inside a cardboard box, again to contain any 'outshoot' Obviously, I've not primed the bottles - just went with the instructions as given.

The initial 'boom' (hope that's not a prophetic word) of the fermentation was spectacular, but after 3 days, all airlock activity had ceased - maybe the baker's yeast does its stuff that quickly, who knows?

Part of the attraction of trying this was because it was so quick from field to glass - my mead, wine, husband's real ale and that 20% vodka stuff are making me impatient. Just picked another kilo of nettles which are bubbling away on the stove - so more of the beer coming soon!

Here's a link to one instance of the original recipe - there's a lot of them out there that say more or less the same thing, but this is as close as it gets to what I did (only my sugar was white rather than demerara, and my yeast was quick dried baking yeast) : http://thefoody.com/drinks/nettlebeer.html

BeerNut

Well, good luck with it. I've heard of the conditioning-by-primary-fermentation thing before, though also of many many Hugh F-W-inspired bottle bombs. Stand well clear when opening.

In fact, make a video and post it for us

Darkginger

BeerNut wrote: »

In fact, make a video and post it for us

Watch this space

Degsy

I've been meaning to try it for ages..was just waiting til the nettles were growing a bit.

The recipie i'm gonna use is this...ie the stronger one.

Darkginger

Do let us know how you get on - that was the recipe I originally looked at, but divided it by 5 to get just enough for one demi-john (the thought of picking 10lbs of nettle tops in one go rather put me off!) - so I ended up more or less with the recipe I linked above.

One piece of advice - don't put an airlock on for the first 12 hours or so, because mine took off like a rocket and was foaming out of the mouth of the demi-john. Just cover it with a cloth to stop any nasties falling in, and wait until the foaming dies down a little before putting the lock on.

Best of luck with it!

Degsy

Darkginger wrote: »

Do let us know how you get on - that was the recipe I originally looked at, but divided it by 5 to get just enough for one demi-john (the thought of picking 10lbs of nettle tops in one go rather put me off!) - so I ended up more or less with the recipe I linked above.

One piece of advice - don't put an airlock on for the first 12 hours or so, because mine took off like a rocket and was foaming out of the mouth of the demi-john. Just cover it with a cloth to stop any nasties falling in, and wait until the foaming dies down a little before putting the lock on.

Best of luck with it!

I'm gonna be doing mine in teh same fermenter i use for beer so it probably wont be fizzing out the to as there wont be enough of it!
Any day know i'm a go look for nettles..

Mantel

I had forgotten about the nettle season, must get out with a shopping bag and collect some. I still have the nettle stock I was going to use for some last year but lazyness kicked in and I forgot about it. At least there was no sugar in it incase some wild yeast got in as well the bottle is still in one peice.

Darkginger

FWIW, here's the video of the grand opening, as promised - yes, I know it's upside down, and apologies for the heavy breathing throughout. All a bit of an anti-climax really, but it tastes good - just the thing for a hot day

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darkginger/5630772669/in/photostream

BeerNut

No explosions. Bor-ring!

Well done. It looks like there's a bit of condition to it. Was it properly fizzy?

Darkginger

Yes, it's definitely a sparkling drink - and you get a little buzz off it too, so there's some alcohol in there (not measured the SG, might do next time I open one). Not bad for something made from weeds and sugar!

Mashtun

Looks great!

fryup

Darkginger wrote: »

and apologies for the heavy breathing throughout.

mmmmmmm what else were you up to????

Sonovagun

BeerNut wrote: »

Hall & Woodhouse make a commercial one you sometimes see here, but it's a bit bland and not very nettley, IMO.

Where have you seen it here? I've been looking for Badger Ale for ages and can't find it anywhere!

Sonovagun

I've my nettle ale brewing at the moment. I followed this recipe!

10lb young nettles
40 pints water
10 lemons,
5lb demerara sugar
1lb white sugar
5oz cream of tartar
1.5 oz yeast

Not much happened in the way of fermentation for the first 36 hours! But theres nice flow of bubbles now. It didn't foam up like i thought it would!

I'm in two mind whether to rake it or not. The brew still has the lemon zest and sediment in it and i'm thinking by syphoning it in to a secondary fermentor i'll end up with a better clearer end result. What are peoples opinions on this?

BeerNut

Sonovagun wrote: »

Where have you seen it here?

DrinkStore and the like have had them, but they don't seem to be around at the moment.