Nettle Wine

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Evening folks, Just bottled my
Nettle Wine.
Well I say just bottled it, it was actually like 2pm lol.

Anyway, it’s a pretty wierd, grassy flavour, but considering it’s cheap as buggery to make I highly recommend it coz it ain’t ‘alf bad.

Here’s a recipe for anyone interested. Can’t remember where I got it from:

Nettle Wine

Carrier bag full of nettle tops
1.1kg sugar
250g chopped sultanas
Juice and zest of an orange
Juice and zest of a lemon
Mug of strong tea
Yeast
Yeast nutrient
Pectolase
Water up to a gallon

Rinse the nettle tops and chuck away nasty ones. Dissolve the sugar in a litre of boiling water in the bucket. Chuck everything else in the bucket except the yeast. Add a crushed campden tablet and wait 24 hours.

Pitch yeast.

Ferment on pulp for 5 days. Rack to demijohn, ferment out.

Anyone else made some?

 

[Drunkula]

I've made nettle beer and I really like it. So much so I made 50 litres and drank it all in 26 days.

One thing I learned, well for me - the nettle tops thing makes nettle beer that doesn't have enough flavour and it takes 10 times as long to pick. I didn't know it was supposed to be tips until my third or fourth batches and I didn't like them anywhere near as much.

 

[kelper]

I've made nettle beer and I really like it. So much so I made 50 litres and drank it all in 26 days.

One thing I learned, well for me - the nettle tops thing makes nettle beer that doesn't have enough flavour and it takes 10 times as long to pick. I didn't know it was supposed to be tips until my third or fourth batches and I didn't like them anywhere near as much.

can you clarify? Did you prefer just tips or did you prefer the whole nettle?

 

[Drunkula]

Did you prefer just tips or did you prefer the whole nettle?

Whole nettle, stalks and all in the boil. Not pulling them out of the ground but cutting say a 2/3rds down. You've guage it on how manky they look. The very first batch had tons of nettles that had gone to seed because I didn't know anything about the established rules and I think that was my favourite. A lot of people tried it and really liked it. Some hated it, of course, but that's what nettle beer does.

 

[kelper]

What's the difference between nettle wine and nettle beer?

 

[Drunkula]

What's the difference between nettle wine and nettle beer?

The amount of sugar, I go 5 or 6 %, and I don't use tannin. Then it's carbonated. Because it's basically sugar water you can carb it like crazy 3 to 4 volumes. I'd go higher if I had champagne bottles.

There are proper grain beer gruits made with nettles. I tried it once but it got an infection. I'll do it again at some point.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Mines about 13% I think, and flat of course.

I didn’t find it took that long to pick a carrier bag of the tops. I think I got lucky because some of them were beginning to flower. I read somewhere they aren’t any good then.

But then it’s only 1 carrier bag for a gallon, I don’t know how much you needed for beer. I would assume about 11 carrier bags full for 50 litres?

 

[kelper]

I think I'll try nettle soup! Then nettle wine but nettle beer sounds weird! Maybe call it sparkling nettle wine???

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Let us know what the soup tastes like, always thought that would be interesting.

 

[Drunkula]

Let us know what the soup tastes like, always thought that would be interesting.

It's fantastic. As soon as nettles hit boiling water the chemical that makes the sting breaks down and they become almost exactly like spinach. I made nettle saag and it was amazing. I thought I'll try a bit and it'll probably be yuk, nope. It really is like having free spinach.

Maybe call it sparkling nettle wine???

You'll have to go back and write the history books if you want that to happen. I've found a 1930s recipe and I reckon you could go way earlier than that. There's a 6000 year old recipe for nettle pudding, wow.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

It really is like having free spinach.

But can you make spinach wine? Lol

 

[Drunkula]

But can you make spinach wine? Lol

If I could find a load cheap I'd give it a bloody good go! Recent months have been a dry spell for me scattering pensioners like skittles trying to get close to some spotty lad with a pricing gun and those super sexy multi-stacked yellow labels.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Oh those were good times. Looking for yellow sticker meat products. Sigh.