Please don't laugh, I'm new to this !

[mattg73]

Absolutely brand spanking new to this malarkey. I'm making nettle beer (River Cottage Recipe but with a touch of chopped root ginger). Trouble is, infused the nettles for an hour or so in a 10L jam making pan with the intention of producing 10L. I have however since found that despite the pan clearly having a 10L mark, it actually holds 7.5L. Probably should have checked the volume first off, but I feel a reasonable assumption was made.
Anyhoo, I have 7.5L liquid but with 1500g of demarera sugar and a sachet (suitable for 5 gallons) of SB12 real ale yeast (obviously also including the other ingredients, cream or tartar, lemon juice and orange juice).

Many recipes recommend leaving 3-5 days but I don't fancy having to explain exploding bottles to the missus, so going down the hydrometer route. After five days fermenting @ 22 - 24degC, looks and smells OK but reads 1.052 on the hydrometer. Also had a taste, it has the potential to be rather palatable but extremely sweet. Am I correct in thinking that the high proportion of sugar will just mean a longer fermenting time and higher overall strength or should I just start again with the correct qts for the volume of beer to be produced.

Many thanks in advance.

[lollypopp]

Not sure what your OG was, but that sounds to me, that you'll going to get a lot of gas of, and probably will drop below 1000, so you might have to be patient, keep a beady eye on your thread, as there will be someone along that knows a lot more than I do, but good luck with it!

[CJBrew]

Yeah, be patient, let it go and don't worry. You probably started at about 1.077 (according to my copy of BeerSmith). The yeast should take that down to about 1.02 or lower, and it shouldn't taste quite as sweet.

Out of interest, could you post your recipe?

Chris

[mattg73]

Thanks for the replies. This is the recipe I've adopted with a hint of ginger. As stated, should be based on 10L. If this is OK, want to try other herbs and also dandelion root with the brew.

7.5 litres water
1 carrier-bagful of young nettle tops
chopped ginger 30mm length peeled and roughly chopped
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
1.5kg demarera sugar
55g cream of tartar
SB12 real ale yeast

[lollypopp]

I would think you could put what you want in it, but going down the hydrometer route is wise, when you've got 2 days with the same reading, it's fermented out, time to rack it off!

[Mitchamitri]

If it gets below 1.01 it wont be "not quite as sweet" - with all those ingredients itll be bone dry!!!