what are nettles good for #4
Honestly, I thought nettle beer would be disgusting….and it’s not – its really very good!.. made in a similar way to elderflower champagne (but not quite as wonderful).
Me being me.. I looked at a few recipes for nettle beer, then tweaked it into my own. A hit with us – so much so that we have been out today and harvested yet more nettle tips, for another batch.
Fear not.. no nettle loving butterflies were hurt in the making of this beer.. only the tips does not take out much in the way of nettles!
And the recipe is ……
Oops – just found the recipe on your main part of the website (slinks off looking embarassed)
🙂 maybe I should have made the link a tad more obvious… sorry… but do try it.. its worth it. everyone says it improves with waiting.. hence all the hanging around for a day or two at various stages.
I got the idea from http://www.naturessecretlarder.co.uk today. Looks like everyone is up to such things. Looks good and I will give it a crack.
Hi,
Thanks for the recipe, only one i could find without vream of tartar. I threw in a few dandelion roots as well.
Fingers crossed, lovely website BTW!
Donal
thanks 🙂 – hope the recipe works out for you.
Hi there, just decanted our first batch of nettle beer, and what a disappointment! We have never tasted nettle beer before so we have absolutely no idea what it is suppose to taste like, but it wasn’t very good I don’t think. It was quite a milky coloured yellow and had a thinish while film on the bottom of the bottle, and there was no fizz. None what so ever. Until my husband shook the bottle, whereby it then made a very pathetic ‘pop’. Is this normal?
We followed a River Cottage recipe, but I don’t think we did it correctly. We never sterilized the pan we seeped the nettles in. We did sterilize the bottles, but then after 3 days fermenting my husband just poured the ‘must’ ( i think thats what its called) from the pan we were fermenting it in, into a funnel and then into bottles, which sat for about a week.
Can anyone give us starters a few pointers so we can make another batch??!!
well, I’ve not tried the RC recipe.. but you could try mine. I always clean everything carefully before use or you get the wrong yeasts etc.
Hi! Very interesting recipe indeed, my only question is how much yeast do you use, and what type?
all purpose brewers yeast, about 1/3 teaspoon
thanx a lot for the quick answer, the nettles are boiling as I write! hehe 🙂
np yeast isn’t an exact thing.. it multiplies.. so you can vary it a bit.
Does this recipe actually produce alcohol?
yes, just like old fashioned ginger beer, not very strong but yeast eats sugar and alcohol is the by product
Do you think the alcohol content is close to regular beer?
no, its pretty mild – but this will depend on how long you allow it to brew – more days = more alcohol. but you make this under your own risk
I see, thank you for the information, I think I’ll try it, I’ve got plenty of nettles down back.