Nettle beer

[happycrabster]

Hi all,
It's been about a year since I had a chance to look in (moving, two separate computer failures, etc.), so pardons if this is already covered...
I just came across a recipe for "nettle beer", not using nettle as a hop substitute, but as the primary ingredient. The author claimed it had "a good beery taste", but on the face of it, it looked like spinach wine (urg).
Can anyone tell me anything more about the subject?
Thanks,
HC

 

[bikeboy389]

I saw that Instructable too. British - Stinging Nettle Beer

I'm pretty sure the nettles were the bittering/flavoring agent--I do know that nettles are supposed to be bitter.

I don't know enough to know if the amount of sugar added was enough on its own to make for a proper wort (in terms of fermentables) though. It's about 1.75 pounds of table sugar for 2.11 gallons of liquid. I have no idea how pounds of cane sugar stack up against pounds of malt, where I'd expect to see 3 or so lbs for 2 gallons.

This guy's recipe should definitely be read by anyone who thinks diverging from the prescribed process will result in something that's not beer. He's got all kinds of sugar, and uses bread yeast, and WEEDS for crap sake, and still winds up with something he can confidently call beer. Pretty cool.

 

[nebben]

If you're talking about the recipe that was on instructables today, it doesn't even look like beer. More like a nettle wine since it is just sugar and nettle leaves.

 

[Pabst Blue Robot]

The Elk's Head brewery in Buckley, WA brews a seasonal nettle beer that is the dog's bollocks. The base beer is actually beer and they steam the nettles first (fresh picked locally) but that's all I know about it. Could drink it by the gallon though...

 

[Homercidal]

I bet they steam the nettles to make them not stinging anymore. When I was a kid we'd go pick up worms on the riverbed areas, under the leaves. The nettles were thick. Think of the sting as a cross between the worst mosquito bite you've ever had, and sunburn. It only last for a short while, but it will drive you crazy!

I've heard that cooking the plant modifies the poison so that it doesn't sting.

I would be curious to try a small batch and see what happens. I wonder if my family still owns that piece of land...

 

[Displaced MassHole]

After all the horrible expierences I had with nettles in England during a summer trip there is no way in hell I'm gonna go near anything nettle related again.

 

[happycrabster]

I've heard that there are actually those who suffer from arthritis who whack their affected joints with bundles of nettle (the process is called "urtication"), to help with the arthritic pain. The beer sounds better to me.
Thanks for all your answers/replies!
HC

 

[jaybee]

>> "I'm pretty sure the nettles were the bittering/flavoring agent--I do know that nettles are supposed to be bitter."

Flavoring agent - yes. Bittering agent - no. Nettles have a savory, slightly salty flavor, but they are not bitter. Depending on how they were grown/harvested/dried, they might also have a slight or moderate hay aroma and flavor.

And yes, nettle stinging has a long history of use for arthritis, I have used it for that ... it is more effective than the typical cream or liniment. Boiling or drying the herb destroys the stingers, so the counter-irritant/prolotherapy/acupuncture properties are not found in the cooked greens or tea.

 

[captianoats]

If you have access to nettles, I say give it a shot. Sugar is cheap, if it sucks you can dump it without feeling bad.

My name on instructables is captianoats as well. I have several featured articles.


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