The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Home brewing => Topic started by: ATF on May 08, 2011, 06:58:04 pm
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still working on the perfect nettle beer - last lot was OK, I'm added a wee bit of goose grass to this next batch...I'll see how it goes....
in the meantime I've found a delicious Dandelion Beer - from field to glass only takes 9 days or so, and it's best enjoyed young. A lively wee bugger.
1/2 lb dandelion plants (roots, shoots, leaves and flowers)
1 oz yeast (I used bread yeast - it worked fine)
1 lemon
1 Gallon water
1 ox cream of tartar
1/2 oz ginger root
1 lb demerara sugar
Clean the plants, scrub the leave and put then in a pan with ginger and lemon rind. Biol for 10 mins.
Strain liquid into fermentation vessel. Add sugar and cream of tartar.
When water is lukewarm add yeast and lemon juice, cover with a towel and leave for 3 - 4 days until it's stopped bubbling, stirring occasionally. Strain and bottle (in strong glass on plastic bottles - it's a lively beer!)
Ready to drink after 5 days - best drunk young. .
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Wow this looks fab will give it a try! I tried a piece of B&D cake at work and it was amazing but can not find the recipie for that anywhere!
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We're definitely going to give this a go too, thanks for sharing it, won't be long before dandelion season. :thumbsup:
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Well I like the sound of that too but I STILL have a load of nettles in the freezer + all the stuff for making nettle beer, I just need to get started as I love collecting things from the forest so dandelions it is then!!
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Already started ours ;D
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Sounds lovely, lashings of ginger beer then ;) ...I may be too old to drink it though [quotebest drunk young][/quote] ;D
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As soon as we get a fine day I'll get some on the go. One of my favourite flavourings for beer is Bog Myrtle, has anyone tried that?
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What is ox cream of tarter?
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Think it's meant to be oz! As in ounce
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Anyone given this a go?
Dans
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I have all the stuff but still not started brewing, in limbo re houses etc at the moment but we had a lovely young man stay last week, he was an obsessive home brewer and was learning the big brewery skills to become a master brewer...wish I had have been around to chat with him as he was really keen!!
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Now is the time - dandelions every where I look. I've just set it off - at the moment it is very reminiscent of ginger beer - can't detect the dandelion at all - but time will tell....oh, and I got impatient over the yeast and think I killed off the first lot so have added more, hope it'll be OK.
H
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I just put on four gallons of this last night along with a couple of gallons of a nettle beer. I got a bit carried away with the dandelion digging up as we have them all over the place at the moment. Will report back at the weekend with tasting notes...
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How warm does it need to be? Our kitchen is sitll only at 17-18° and it's not fermenting quickly. I've stood it out in the sun but it's not really that warm oustide at the moment either. Will it just take longer if it's cooler than the recipe requires?
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Not a success here. Yeast was a problem.Will retry when I've got time,
H
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I'm just about to make a batch - what yeast did you use Hester? We've got dried bread yeast, I was going to try with that but wonder now... ???
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I used dried bread yeast but it was my fault, not the yeast. I activated the yeast separately because I was worried about whether it'd be OK and I just did it too early. So I was waiting, waiting, waiting for the dandelion stuff to cool and meantime the yeast was frothing over in its jug. I got impatient and added it too soon to the dandelion stuff while it was still too hot so that killed that yeast. So then I added some more yeast when it got cooler but couldn't filter out all the yeast when I transferred it to bottles. Whatever the cause it was flat and tasted awful! So if you are going to use the bread yeast, activate it at the last minute (or just add it direct!).
H
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Brilliant, thanks. :thumbsup:
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I used wine yeast as I had plenty spare. Tastes good - in fact my wife has been drinking some which is a rare compliment for something I've brewed! Will do again - thanks.