Nettle and Dandelion beer

[Phill]

Watching the news the other week I saw that Dandelions are taking over the world, or at least this part of Yorkshire. What’s the big problem I thought, we can eat them and make them into stuff. So found a recipe for dandelion and nettle beer, both ingredients growing in my garden.


The recipe requires Dandelion root, not many large Dandelions in the gardens so only found one big root.


One and a half bags of nettle tips, young nettles are meant to be the best but the ones I have are already flowering. So I only used the very top of the planet hoping they will be okay.


Water on boil, only making 2.5 gallons to see how it turns out.


Preparing Dandelion root, I did try some raw, it didn’t taste of much. So maybe more is required to give the beer at really Dandelion taste.


Nettles and Dandelion root going in the boiler. I boiled the nettles for 15 minutes then added the zest and juice of two oranges and a lemon. Left for a hour or so.


Draining into a fermenting bucket through sanitized sieve. One hand on sieve one hand on camera, that’s multitasking don’t you know.


The stewed nettles left over, tasted quite nice really if a bit over cooked.


Looks a good colour and smells nice at this point.


Added 1.5kg of sugar at this point, sounds a lot but there has got to be something for the yeast to eat I don’t think the nettles provide any sugar.

Left to cool before pitching some Young’s ale yeast and placing under the stairs. Its fermenting well today, although no picture of this for you. All in all its a very cheap and easy thing to make. I don’t have high expectations for the outcome it could be a very nice summery drink or it could be straight to the slug pubs.

[Totem]

Cool idea, what was your starting gravity?

[Vossy1]

Certainly different P, good on ya
The most unusual brew I've seen this year so far

[Phill]

The starting gravity was 1.035, it seems to have stopped fermenting now at about 1.010. So I work that out at about 3.38% which I think should be okay. Its also cleared very nicely and is now a very light colour, again no picture I will try to take one later. Now I need to get the last of the chocolate stout drunk so it can go in the barrel this weekend.

[Matt]

Yeah, good to read this thread , I hope it turns out well. Do post up what you find when its ready Phill.

[The Mighty Badger]

Sounds like an interesting recipe. Nettle soup is lovely so I would hope this would be nice too. Mr Fernley-Whittingstall certainly thinks so.

Looking forward to a taste report. Would also be interest to see if it clears or remains cloudy...

Sorry - just read the bit about clearing nicely ...

[Phill]

Quick update for you, the chocolate stout was finished off last night, so the nettle beers time has come. I've finally got a job starting tomorrow, hurray! More money to spend on brewing. So the nettle beer needed moving today before I forgot about it.


After fermentation the beer is much lighter and has now dropped a bit below 1.010


Everything sanitised, lets go!


It did smell very good at this point, like a flowery lager.


Siphoning in action, looks almost like water in the pipe


A good amount in the barrel, I only set out to make 2.5 gallons.

I added 50g of brewing sugar, boiled to sanitize it first. Dont usually do this but the sugars been around along time. Not tasted it at this point, I usually think beers taste bad at this point anyway so didnt want to worry myself. Quick question, because ive only got half a barrel am I best purging it with CO2?

[BrewMonkey]

Careful with the zesting... I`ve had bad experiences when using zest so I tend to leave it out altogether. Made tons of 6gal batches of birch wine (yea I know I`m a pussy) and all the ones I put zest into were virtually undrinkable. At best, they were `winky` - as in.. You find yourself pulling your head back sharply with one eye closed, haha! Not good. I made nettle beer this spring which required zest too, so I thought that since it`s only in the FV for a week or 2 the zest wouldn`t be a problem. But alas! It was, I`m bitter to admit. Perhaps it`s just a thing with me and zest! I`ll be very keen to know how this one turns out, and a recipe if it does

[aceuass]

Whats the outcome, seems very interesting
Cheers Paul

[Frenchie Laurence]

i have made lots of nettle beer and it can reach 7%, depends on the amount of demerera sugar you choose to add in obviously . I have tried adding ginger or zest but it is much nicer with no other added flavor than the nettles. I have also tried Burdock and dandelion, nice but too much hard work to get all those roots. Taste of nettle beer is very much of its own, but i'd say dont expect the taste of beer, think about cider or perry instead and you should all like it, well my friends do!!!!!

[Phill]

Well here is the outcome



When I started this the idea was a refreshing drink for warm evenings in the garden. As it turned out it was a horrible wet cold evening inside with the heating on but anyway. The nettle and dandelion "drink" is very nice. Its very light and slightly hazy and smells very nice. I cant really describe what it taste like yet it not really like a conventional beer at all. It reminds me of a lager I can get in a bar in town, will look the name of that up. It is however very sweet, perhaps too sweet so maybe a more fermentable sugar would be better?

The recipe I have used is;

1 1/2 plastic shopping bags of nettle tips
1 large dandelion root cleaned and chopped (more if i could have found it)
Zest and juice of 2 oranges and 1 lemon
Boiled in 2.5 gallons for 15mins and then left for 1 hour
Strained into fermentor left to cool
Added 1kg unrefined Demerara sugar and 500g brewing sugar
Pitched Youngs ale yeast

For a total spend of £1.75 I think its gone quite well. Will see how it matures in the barrel