nettle beer

[Tsuyako]

Okay so I did a prelimiary search and didn't find anything. Has anyone made a nettle beer before? I don't think it would be that difficult but I'd love to try to make a one gallon batch of it to see if I even like it.

 

[Sedge]

I personally haven't brewed or tasted one, but there's historic evidence on nettles in beer before hops (and after too). In the UK is where the predominant info is found. I'd be interested to try it.

 

[coryforsenate]

Go easy on the nettle. One of the guys in the local brew club made a nettle beer. Here's the recipe with his commentary. He said it resulted in some very nettle-ly beer so he suggested cutting the nettle in half.

3 gallons of Some Nettle Beer

Fermentables

* 4 lbs Vienna
* 2 lbs Munich

Doughed in 2 gallons of 160° F water (mostly RO with some tap water for "minerals"). The mash hit 157° F for 40 minutes. Using an ad-hoc brewing setup I batched sparged through a colander and collected a little more than 3 gallons of 10% brix sweet wort. So far so good. The reporter arrived right on time as the wort was starting to boil.

Bittering

* 1 oz 8.1% AA Perle 60 minutes
* 6 oz dried loose leaf nettles 60 minutes

I wasn't sure how much nettles to add - most of the recipes you find online measure by the fresh bucket or the peck. They went in until I had enough to almost overflow my kettle. By then the wort had a sharp nastiness to it signaling to me that it was a good time to stop.

 

[Handle]

I'd like to use a Randall filled with nettles or spruce. I don't know that it would impart much flavor, since I don't think any oil would come off of them like hops.

 

[Potter1]

I did a nettle wine once with a friend. She had an old time recipe book and had something called "nettle beer" But no barley or hops, so ot really a beer. It turned out.....interesting. Very earthy, but lemony, like a hard lemonade with a little dirt. Not bad once you got used to it.

8 lbs fresh nettles
4.5 lbs white sugar (I subbed corn sugar)
juice of ten lemons
zest of ten lemons
1.5 tablespoons cream of tarter (??????? dont know why)
Boil all this for 1 hour

Syphon out must
cool.

I think I used a yeast cake from a secondary (WLP004 Irish ale)

Good luck with all that

 

[HalfPint]

I just did a quick yahoo images search and I found this. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stml/2566658917/in/set-72157605536952525/

Enjoy.

 

[Tsuyako]

Wow thanks for all the quick replies. I'll be looking into these and giving it a try.

 

[JaviWanKenobi]

Hi Tsuyako,
Long time since you post, but did you try? I have tried myself with not very good results (see my thread Massive hangove with Nettle beer), so I'd be interested to see if you were succesfull.

 

[Tsuyako]

Hi Tsuyako,
Long time since you post, but did you try? I have tried myself with not very good results (see my thread Massive hangove with Nettle beer), so I'd be interested to see if you were succesfull.

You know I totally forgot about this thread! This is still on my to brew list and I might just give it a try soon.

 

[underground_brewer]

Give it a try! Why not?

Reminds me, my dad had this weird idea of selling deep-fried nettles at the state fair... LOL

Someone else mentioned using spruce, I think I might try a porter with some new spruce growth.