[Bionic]

Well I have just decanted my batch and I must say I am very pleased with it.
Lovely colour, not too sweet and quite a pleasant taste 

[fiestyredhead331]

just cooked up my first batch 

all this has reminded me I have bottles of cider fermenting in the loft 

[fiestyredhead331]

my first batch ready tomorrow but waiting on the bottles to arrive first.

did some research and apparently if you use nettles with flowers they can develop cystoliths which can irritate the throat, think I'll try it out on the children first 

[goosepimple]

Cooked up my first batch yesterday - I've guessed at the amount of lemons as I didn't have citric acid -

Can anyone tell me this - is the citric acid there to make it taste lemony or just to add acid, or both???

I felt like Macbeth's witches when I was stirring it all up this morning - it just tastes like sugary water though, take it that changes over the week?  Or do I need to add a toad and a tooth fairy 

[Greenerlife]

Citric acid gives it that sourness, and also you need to use less of it to dilute to taste.  Best place for citric acid is a brew shop.  I buy it in quantity, as it keeps

[fiestyredhead331]

your local pharmacy can order it in for you too if they don't have it in the dispensary

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

Citric acid is a stabilizer and preservative. You don' tneed to use it if you are not planning to keep the cordial for any length of time (it freezes well, if you don't drink it straight away too), but I find the results are much more successful with. You can get it easily these days from ebay and places like Wilkinsons as well as the places already listed.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I made some elderflower cordial the other day and froze the rest of it, it was very nice.

[ellied]

My first ever nettle cordial is half way gone from the fridge already, it had less than the required amount of citric acid as I only had 50g and needed 80 for the double weight, but other than being a little sweet it was just fine and no sore throats whatsoever so I assume I missed any flowers coming.

Just a shame I have been pulling the rest of the nettles ever since to get at the garden, but I'm thinking there may be a few more new grown tops before long with all the rain so I might manage another batch for freezing

[fiestyredhead331]

bottles arrived and 1st batch bottled up, looks and tastes great!!! Now just to go and find some fresh tops for batch number 2..........my neighbours who only visit for a couple of weeks per year have a good looking crop on their side of the fence 

[goosepimple]

I need to bottle up now but don't have time this weekend so it's going to be sitting for a couple of days longer so we'll see what happens....

Is it too late to make more - they're all in flower now?

[fiestyredhead331]

mine were left for an extra couple of days as I waited for the bottles to turn up, seems fine. A lot of mine have flowered now but I'm finding young ones buried in between the big ones so I'm going to cut them on Sunday 

[goosepimple]

OK, so we're not giving the evil eye to nettles any more 

[fiestyredhead331]

would love to cut back the old ones and dry them out for goat feed but nowhere suitable to dry them

[fiestyredhead331]

well lesson learned!!1

I bottled mine in some lovely kilner clip top bottles and they seemed a bit foamy but thought nothing of it until one of my friends opened a bottle yesterday and the damn thing near hit the moon!

I am guessing that because when I left it for the week I put a big lid on it rather than a tea towel and getting aggitated in the car maybe added to it? 
tasted amazing though