Nettle Beer

[derbex]

Has anyone made it, got a recipe? I do have one from an ols Farmers Weekly book -but I don't know where to get sarsaparilla from.

Jeremy

[derbex]

[Marianne]

Derbex, as soon as you find this recipe, pleeeaaaase let me know !  Have masses of the week in my garden and would do anything to put it to good use, as in making boooooze out of it ! LOL  ;D  I know some people make soup out of nettles but boooze !

:D ;D

[kenkew]

I used to drink loads of this stuff as a kid. The lady next door made gallons of it. I'm off on a search for an oldie recipe.

[Beer Monster]

Try.......http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/nettles.asp

I use this website for the odd recipe...its american so beware the measurements.....good luck.

8)

[kenkew]

Nice one BM.

[wardy]

I used to have it when I was little.  My mum made it in a gas copper and I recall she used something called Mason's Extract in it.  Another ingredient was nettles.  It tasted very lemony and was delicious.  We used to have strict instructions to only gather the nettle tops or else.  My brother was once sent forth to fetch nettles and he came back with dock leaves.  Doh!

You can also use your nettles in the compost heap, in the water butt and with leaf mould (this is in the HDRA book)

[Simon05]

Nettle Beer Recipe, taken from an old book

Young Nettles - 1 Gallon
sugar - 12 ozs
lemon - 1
malt - 2 lbs
sarsaparilla - 2 ozs (Dictionary Description to follow)
root ginger - quarter of an ounce
dried hops - 1 oz
water 1 gallon
brewing yeast ( it doesnt say how much)

To 1 gallon of water add the washed nettles, the bruised ginger, malt, hops and
sarsaparilla, cover and boil together for 15 minutes.  Strain the liquid into a
polythene vessel and add the sugar and juice of the lemon, stirring well to dissolve.  When the liquid is just comfortably cool, add the yeast. Cover and keep in a warm place to ferment for 3 days, using a plastic skimmer to take off any froth that rises to the surface. Strain the beer into sterilised beer or cider bottles, seal off with corks (not screw caps) and tie the corks down firmly.
Store the bottles upright in a cool place for a week before drinking.

sarsaparilla - the dried root of several species of smilax from North America, much used in medicine.

smilax - a genus of liliaceous plants or climbing shrubs

[wardy]

Don't know if Sarsparilla is available these days in root form.  It seems to come as tincture in little bottles.  I've found out what Mason's Extract is.  It was a herbal mixture brewed into a beer by a medicinal company in Nottingham - also probably not available now  :(

[derbex]

Thanks all,

from wandering around it looks like you need
1gall/2lbs of nettles to 1 gall water
8oz suger(+) depends how strong you want it.
To which one can add a couple of lemons, sarsaparilla, ginger, misc herbs.

Ideally brewers yeast, but also the bread/toast trick and mine might get wine coz that's what I've got.

My dad says he was given it to purify the blood, but then again he used to get sulphur blown down his neck to cure a sore throat :o

Jeremy

[Marianne]

wow ! thanks for the recipes eveyone !  I'm off to brew some this very week end !
;D

[philcooper]

I've just seen this thread.

Simon's recipe is a bit odd in that it has all the normal beer ingredinets, hops, malt yeast and water found in normal beer.

Nettles were used before hops were found to be a better preservative (and give a more bitter taste)

Phil

[derbex]

Perhaps Simon's is more 'Nettle Flavoured Beer?'

J

[derbex]

Finally kicked this off at the weekend

2lbs nettles,
2lemons
1lb suger (mostly muscovado)
1 or 2sp ground ginger.
1 gall water.

Boiled the nettles for 15 mins then strained and put it in the bucket. Starting SG was 1035 so it will be alcoholic  :D -if you only use 1/2lb of suger it would be more like pub shandy. Have to say it tasted pretty good before I pitched the yeast in (not sure about that yeast -it was some left over from the parsnip wine and kept in the fridge- seems to be going).

I'm going to have to go on the scrounge for more PET bottles.

Jeremy

[Hex]

Nettle wine last year was really apallingly undrinkable - american recipe full of sugar and ginger. This year I will burn the nettles and put the sugar to better use elsewhere.

I hope the beer is better.  Let us know if it is nice.

[Diana]

My brother gave me some sasperilla (oops! :-\) last year, was wondering what to do with it. Will ask him where he got it.

[Diana]

Sasperilla can be got at Pately Bridge (near Wensleydale) in Yorkshire - from the Old-Fashioned Sweet Shop there. (I think they bill it as the oldest sweet shop in England - they may have a website (incongruous, I know).

Hope that helps

[wardy]

Good infor Diana     My niece has friends up there so I'll tell her to call in for some sweets  ;D         I've got loads of nettles at the mo and tempted to start a brew

[derbex]

Just to say I started mine a week ago, tasted quite nice before the fermentation started. It got quite vigorous for a bit but then died away and 'stuck' a bit, I put in half a teaspoon of nutrient and will have a look again tonight.

Jeremy

[derbex]

Bottled it (into PETS, lemonade bottles) last night. Ginger flavour has all gone  >:( BUT it tastes pretty much like a Weiss beer  ;D -must be all the yeast I suppose.


Jeremy

[North Country Boy]

Spotted this on river cottage.net, hope it helps

www.rivercottage.net/recipes/recipe.jsp?ref=recipes.200504041459