[The Relic]

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?

[sandy]

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.

[The Relic]

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

[chickens]

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

[gillandtom]

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

[The Relic]

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)

[chickens]

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   

[The Relic]

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.

[gillandtom]

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!

[The Relic]

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.

[gillandtom]

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.

Will let you know when we are finally brave enough to try the nettle (pond water) beer.  x x

[The Relic]

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

[gillandtom]

Hi Relic,

Got the coopers from 'The home brew shop' on Ebay. 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 

[The Relic]

so if i dont hear from you i'll take it ur in A&E

[gillandtom]

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