Nettle Ale

robharper · Post by **robharper** » Sun May 24, 2009 5:08 pm

A month or so back I made a small batch of nettle beer (based on the River Cottage recipe) and, despite bottling before it was ready, it was very tasty and some friends and I had a very pleasant afternoon in the garden eating pizza and polishing the stuff off. I'll definitely do another batch (I've just trimmed back our nearest nettle patch with the perverse aim of encouraging new growth for this!) though will allow the brew to ferment out before priming and bottling.

One thing has come to mind, though: the recipe, which basically comprises nettle tea, sugar and yeast, is actually a wine recipe -- it's just lower in sugar (and thus alcohol) than a usual wine. So what would happen if I actually made a nettle flavoured (as opposed to hopped) beer, using malt instead of sugar? Has anyone around here actually tried this?

As soon as I get some new nettle growth, I'm going to give this a shot. Let's say, the same basic recipe as before, but with either DME or BKE (depending on what I have lying around at the time) instead of sugar. Can't wait for some new nettles now. (Is that weird?)

mac · Post by **mac** » Mon May 25, 2009 12:47 am

robharper wrote:what would happen if I actually made a nettle flavoured (as opposed to hopped) beer, using malt instead of sugar?
You'd be arrested where I come from

robharper wrote:Can't wait for some new nettles now. (Is that weird?

.....................um...................yes.

Sorry it's late and I've had a few.

WishboneBrewery · Post by **WishboneBrewery** » Mon May 25, 2009 8:43 pm

there was a issue of the CAMRA 'Beer' magazine not so long since with a brewer talking about using polish nettles instead of hops in a beer.

robharper · Post by **robharper** » Tue May 26, 2009 9:09 am

Polish nettles? Is there something special about them? To be honest, I don't think I want to import nettles with such an abundant supply on my doorstep (and by the path, and near the roses, and along the hedge, and...). I guess nettles may not have the preservative qualities of hops (purely a guess), but the flavour is nice,so we'll see.

WishboneBrewery · Post by **WishboneBrewery** » Tue May 26, 2009 9:23 am

I think the Polish nettles were just cheap to buy in bulk, so said the article.

robharper · Post by **robharper** » Tue May 26, 2009 9:55 am

BUY nettles?! These CAMRA guys are just too weird.

Tequilla6 · Post by **Tequilla6** » Wed May 27, 2009 12:12 am

You have sparked an interest in trying out a nettle beer recipe. But I cannot find any...

Should I be surprised, it seems all the nettle beer recipes are not beer at all. I have some historical info saying that they were used in a similar way to hop before hops were used but all the recipes I found are sugar water solutions flavoured with Nettles C J Berry style.

Does anyone have any sensible suggestions on how to use nettles in place of hops and some example recipes which are actually beer related?

Tequilla6 · Post by **Tequilla6** » Wed May 27, 2009 9:12 am

Finally found something that seems to make sense about nettle beer and a recipe, The river Cottage Nettle beer that I'm interested in is this type of one and not the poor excuse for a beer that Channel 4 and every man and his dog on the Google searches I'm doing are pushing.

http://www.hall-woodhouse.co.uk/beers/b ... tinger.asp

So it seems that you can replace the hops in a standard brew with nettles, its really the quantities of nettles that you would need to give the bittering equivalent to replace a standard hop recipe. I guess if no one has any info on actual beer recipes using nettles I may have to do some mini mashes using a simple single grain and hop bitter recipe and then replacing the hops with nettles and have a play.

But I will still be happy to see if anyone can come up with any assistance on the quantity front.

Cheers

trucker5774 · Post by **trucker5774** » Wed May 27, 2009 9:20 am

If you ensure you gather the nettles from the local park ( the bit that the dogs frequent) I reckon that could take care of your bittering question

.....Joking aside, I'm watching this one, it's a brew I fancy doing. Just dont fancy picking the stingy little suckers

robharper · Post by **robharper** » Wed May 27, 2009 9:41 am

It would be interesting to know if that Stinger beer was also hopped.

I think there is nothing really for it -- I'm going to just start experimenting once I have a fresh growth of nettles available (given some rain over the last couple of days that may not take too long). I'm a very inexperienced brewer, though, so I don't expect stunning results, but it should be interesting.

As for bittering, I guess we'll probably end up with something rather less bitter than most beers (or use enormous amounts of nettles!) , but that is sure to be part of the character of the brew.

So is anyone else (other than Tequila6 and myself) going to have a go and post their recipes/results?

xpers · Post by **xpers** » Wed May 27, 2009 10:52 am

Just been having a look on Google and found this recipe below:

http://wild-foods.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... -beer.html

I might give it a go in the next few weeks. I'll probably leave the hops out as I don't have any and I am thinking that the point in using nettles is so you don't need hops anyway.

Just looking at the malt/sugar ratio and with almost 1K malt and 400G sugar in a 5 litre brew it would seem to be very strong for a beer. Any thoughts on this?

trucker5774 · Post by **trucker5774** » Wed May 27, 2009 11:08 am

My rough calculation for the fermentables and the volume you are doing will give about 13% ABV if it ferments just to 1010 FG before priming! I'm really looking forward to doing some.............I will be using about 2 to 4X the nettles and NO hops to try and stick with the stinger theme

trucker5774 · Post by **trucker5774** » Wed May 27, 2009 11:14 am

http://wild-foods.blogspot.com/2007/09/ ... -beer.html

Just looked at the web site above .....it says use the stalks too. I only considered the leaves, maybe this will add to the bitterness

xpers · Post by **xpers** » Wed May 27, 2009 11:47 am

trucker5774 wrote:My rough calculation for the fermentables and the volume you are doing will give about 13% ABV if it ferments just to 1010 FG before priming! I'm really looking forward to doing some.............I will be using about 2 to 4X the nettles and NO hops to try and stick with the stinger theme

I might be tempted to leave the sugar out altogether and just use 1kg spray malt. Or go with 500g spray malt and 200-300g sugar. Not made these quantities before so I am unsure how much malt you would need to get the body for the beer. Would 500g lack body in 5 litres?

WishboneBrewery · Post by **WishboneBrewery** » Wed May 27, 2009 11:59 am

reading that recipe it sounds more like you are making some weak Ginger Beer...

If I were going to try this I think I'd just do it by feel rather than that recipe.

How's about a nice short brew length; a couple of gallons, couple of bags of light spray malt, couple of hundred grams of cane sugar, hundred grams of Crystal malt, a handfull of First wort bittering hops, and a carrier bag full of fresh nettles....

Might taste like pish, maybe a full carrier bag is a bit much for 2 gallons

But its not a log of ingredients to waste.

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