Something I have learned along the way in life is that a sense of adventure makes everything more fun. This is true for many things, including homebrewing and wildcrafting. Combine the two and you can end up brewing some pretty wild things while having fun along the way. I have wanted to brew nettle beer for a long time now, and just hadn’t felt like I could pick enough quantity for a decent sized batch. This year, I decided to just go for it, so we found this recipe in the Guardian (Homebrew From the Hederow: Brewing Nettle Beer) and multiplied it up to about 5 gallons.
Our scaled-up version of the recipe:
8.8 Lbs fresh nettle tops
5.2 gallons water
3.96 Lbs dark brown sugar
8 lemons juiced
.11 Lbs cream of tartar
Champagne Yeast
I must say, picking over 8 Lbs of nettles is quite an endeavor, and quite a lot of nettles. I had to really get into the nettle patch to fill my baskets, and did not come out unscathed, but the nettle stings were well worth it.
You would be surprised how long it takes to get 8 Lbs of nettles up to a boil. It took nearly an hour of heating to achieve 15 minutes of boiling. The backyard smelled delicious though.
Once we removed the strainer pot of nettles, we stirred in the lemon juice, sugar, and cream of tartar.
It ended up being a little much for the 5 gallon carboy and we had to use our 6 gallon, where the beer happily fermented away for about two weeks.
Reviews on the final product have been a little mixed. I really love it, but I also really love nettles. It’s not quite like beer, and is more like a refreshing cooler or tonic than a party beverage. The gravity reading came out at 5%, so it’s pretty low-key. I personally love it because it tastes 100% like stinging nettles, with an added bubbly kick. Just like springtime in a jar.
Cheers!
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