The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Recipes => Topic started by: The Relic on April 21, 2009, 02:01:00 pm
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started a brew today anyone else have a go at this.
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Tried some from the 'River Cottage' hamper before but never made it. My OH is wanting to give it a go this year - Do post your recipe if it is a good one! :yum:
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no problem i'll let u know how it goes
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one thing i noticed when making it i had to use several pots to boil the water some of which could have been cleaner. should have given them a good aul scrub before had as you can see some residue on top of the water.
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I made 40 pints on Sunday ;) once this batch is in the keg, I'll start another brew off. Made this lot with fair trade brown sugar from lidl, will be interesting to see how it turns out. Last year I made it 50/50 white sugar and molasses.
The basic recipe is..
40 pints of water
10 lbs nettle tips (top six leaves) roughly a large 25kg feed sack full
Juice & rind of 10 lemons
5lbs of sugar (whatever I have in the cupboard or feed shed !!)
5oz cream of tartar
Yeast (one dry sachet)
Place sugar, lemons, cream of tartar in fermenting bin.
Boil the nettles for 15 mins strain into bin, (I have to do mine in batches - two large stock pots at a time). Top up bin to 40 pints level. Sprinkle on yeast when cooled to hand hot. I leave to ferment for 10 days (though I've seen recipes when they rack off after 4 ??), then rack off into keg with extra half pound of sugar. Place in cool place, drinkable in ten days, but best left until clears.
Cheers ;D
ETA - the piggies liked the cooked nettles :pig:
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just had a little look there tonight seems to be working the smell of the boiled nettles has gone replaced by a more pleasant citrus smell (added some lemon and orange juice) and seems to be fizzing away also the colour is changing from mucky green to a more beery colour.
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I've been dying to make some if this since I moved up here and I have just received my new kegs, yeast and tartaric acid from ebay so starting it this week. Everyone is being roped in to collect the nettles (family thing LOL - if they want to drink it they need to pick it)
Keep us informed how yours is going on please - I am very interested and I will do the same when I get mine started.
Good Luck
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i have one of those cheapo fermenting bins with a sealable top. when its sealed the gases cant escape so i have just placed it on top with a towel over it. does it need to be sealed and the gases can escape when i open to check on how things are going or is it ok the way it is. ive seen people just throw muslin over the top.
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Mine's also just a cheapo white fermenting bin. I been using it for years with no problems. The lid is just 'clicked' on 3/4 of the way round to allow gases out and the lead to the heater in. I also have a large 'wine' fermenter that holds 40 pints and can be fitted with an airlock. I've found no difference in the speed of fermentation or quality of the finished beer. :yum:
I only rack it off into a keg, cos' I'm too lazy/lack of time to be bothered with bottles !!
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after bottling that tonight dont know what way its gonna turn out. still a very pond water colour. only a litttle bit of froth when going onto bottles. stuck a hyrometer into it think it read a measly 2%. taste and smell not 2 bad tho. hope it clears
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Hi
Is there any way this nettle beer can be made without cream of tartar or is there a substitute that is cheaper please?
Thanks
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i think you can add more lemon juice.
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I would LOVE to try this, running the B&B with my partner having to work is difficult, I only have just enough time to do the everyday chours, if I had my partner at home I would be brewing as it is one of the things I would love to do. Love forraging and living as b est as I can for free!!!
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Ok just made my nettle beer - its in the fermenting bucket - so hopefully in 10 days we'll have some.
Even if we don't we've just had great fun picking the nettles - daughter, son-in-law, 2 grandaughter's, OH & me. In between I made lemonade with the lemons left and we had some fresh tiger prawns (golden fried in egg batter) for lunch, followed by the Fudge Cake (recipe off this site) that we made last night. Everyone's just gone home happy and I'm now having a well deserved rest.
Lovely Sunday and hopefully as a bonus lovely beer in 10 days.
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I'm drooling just reading ;D
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nettle beer was a failure, the bottles (2l coke bottles) filled with gas but beer is still pond colour. :( might still try to drink it tho. will it kill me?
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Shame, I would love to try it but 10 pounds of Nettles would take me ages and ages to collect!!!!!! I wounder if you can use frozen ones. I suppose your Beer will clear you out if nothing else, maybe sip!!!!! Keep us informed, good luck.
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a plastic bag full should do u for 6 liters. my advise start off small collecting loads of nettles for your beer to turn out undrinkable is a kick in the stones. the nettles are only used for the taste
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We made some on sunday, first off didnt have any cream of tartar so put an extra lemon in, but also the yeast did not seem to work (maybe put it in when too hot still), so we made a starter with the yeast and added it - we are stirring ours daily are you meant to? Just we have done that with other recipes.
Shame yours did not work Relic as it is hard work collecting all the nettles and despite protective clothing - getting stung as well.
Chickens
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a plastic bag full should do u for 6 liters. my advise start off small collecting loads of nettles for your beer to turn out undrinkable is a kick in the stones. the nettles are only used for the taste
OK Relic went for your alternative option and tried a smaller load to start with. Used 2 carrier bags with about 12L of water so we will see how that goes. How is yours looking now? Has the pond cleared a little? Ours looks pretty bad but we only set it last night. Fingers crossed! x x
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after pouring the second batch down the drain i have given up on the nettle beer for now got some coopers in a can instead and it is fermenting away nicely. 1 very important thing Hugh F.W. fails to mention is the temp of the brew before you add the yeast. to hot and it kills the yeast 2 cold and it wont activate. anything between 21 cel and 30 cel around 25 cel is perfect. (i think this is where i went wrong with the nettle beer)
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Nettle beer disaster perhaps I could use it as a compost or a fertiliser? Any ideas?
Think I may have to give up the beer making lol :(
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dont let it beat u chickens you will be victorious. should be good for compost. go through your recipe and process and think of what you may have done wrong. sterilazation and brew temp id say are the most important. this is it in a nutshell as i understand it
1 stage fermentation
nettles (or whatever u use) - for taste
water - main ingredient
sugar - to feed the yeast
yeast - produces to by-products as it consumes the sugar. co2 and our favourite alcohol.
2nd stage fermentation
after a few days the yeast has consumed the sugar so you can do 1 of 2 things
bottle - you add a little sugar to each bottle and add you brew
carboy - add the equlivant amount sugar.
you do stage 2 to carbonate your brew. as the yeast finds more sugar to consume yet while inside an air tight vessels the co2 has nowhere to go it adds itself to your brew making it fizzy/giving u a head (note A head lol). bottles give u a less consisting tasting beer as there my be different amounts of sugar in each while a carboy will give each beer the same taste.
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Oh Relic - mine looks like a pond as well! has a kind of beer smell tho so keeping my fingers crossed. Cracked open a pack of Coopers aswell just incase!
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ive gone through about 15l of coopers in the last week and a half its great stuff. not much of a hangover either. trying to convince my mates its ok to drink is the problem. knocking the nettles on the head for this year going to wait for the elderflowers for my next hedgerow brew.
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ive gone through about 15l of coopers in the last week and a half its great stuff. not much of a hangover either. trying to convince my mates its ok to drink is the problem. knocking the nettles on the head for this year going to wait for the elderflowers for my next hedgerow brew.
What kind off coopers do you reccommend? We have a Mexican cervaisa brewing at the moment but haven't tried it before. Elderflower champagne is on the list as well - keeping an eye on the bush at the end of the street for the flowers to open. 8)
Will let you know when we are finally brave enough to try the nettle (pond water) beer. x x
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i go for the coopers orignal lager it has a green band on the bottom of the can. doesnt seem to keep a head tho (saying that im using 2l bottles the head lasts a little longer in 500m bottles) but im lazy sanitizing and priming 40 500m bottles can be tedious. did u buy ur Mexican online or a homebrew store? im eyeballing the elderflower bush also but not much activity. keep me posted on the pond water
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Hi Relic,
Got the coopers from 'The home brew shop' on Ebay. http://www.home-brew-online.com/ (http://www.home-brew-online.com/)
Going to try the Nettle beer tonight so will give you details of the taste test tomorrow. x x G ;)
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so if i dont hear from you i'll take it ur in A&E
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so if i dont hear from you i'll take it ur in A&E
Well we are still alive - and it was actually quite nice! It still looked quite like a pond; quite cloudy and murky but it did lighten a wee bit. At about day five when it really want looking good we whacked in another sachet of Yeast and that seemed to kick things off a bit. The taste was pretty light really fruity and if i was to describe a beer you could buy like it I would say Hoegaarden but minus the coriander.
Don't know what the alcohol level was as we forgot to measure it. I only had half a glass just incase it made me ill so looking forward to a nice sunny afternoon to try it again cold.
Thanks for the tips. x ;)
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glad to hear it i couldnt watch Britians got talant in peace with the thought of u being rushed to hospital lol just be careful ducks dont try to land on you (poor pond joke).
you have rekindled my interests in making another batch.fruity you say. does it taste like the smell?
mine had a slight citrusy smell but was awful to taste
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Relic,
Glad i didn't upset your Saturday night viewing of BGT! I used the HFW recipe so added the juice of 2 lemons and one orange. That was probably a good idea to lift the murky pond feel to it. Not that I have ever eaten nettels before - but it did taste mostly of nettles. Which is the point i suppose. Had a glass on Saturday night and it really was quite nice super chilled in the evening sun. Good luck if you give it ago again. ;)
.... noticed on the dog walk last night one of the heads on the elder was in full bloom - only another 29 to wait for!
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I followed ' badger faces ' recipe for this , but used different sugar, a Belgian brown sugar. The drink really is good, refeshing. thanks
Kevin