How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (2024)

FAQs

Can you make beer with honey? ›

Often the types used with mead are best, depending on the style of beer you are brewing and desired character. The percentage of honey to use should be between approximately 2-10%. Adding too much honey will not only increase the needed fermentation time, but also give the beer a decidedly mead-like character.

Making stinging nettle tea

Simply add the nettle leaves to the water and bring to the boil. The tea can be made stronger or weaker by adding more, or less, water. Once the water has been simmering for a few minutes strain the mixture into a cup, being sure that no nettles go through the strainer.

Light, refreshing an slightly herbal, nettle beer is slightly alcoholic and great served over ice. It's also super easy to make. You won't need any specialist equipment, just a clean bucket and a few weeks to let your brew ferment and fizz.

Mead (/miːd/), also called hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops.

A good place to start experimenting is with one to two pounds of honey per 5-gallon batch (~0.5–1 kg/19 L) of mid-gravity beer. One pound (0.45 kg) will tend to impart a fairly subtle flavor, while two pounds (0.91 kg) will yield a much more pronounced and noticeable contribution.

The dried leaves and flowers can be steeped to make a delicious herbal tea, while its leaves, stem and roots can be cooked and added to soups, stews, smoothies and stir-frys. However, avoid eating fresh leaves, as their barbs can cause irritation. Currently, there is no recommended dosage for stinging nettle products.

Quickly blanching them in a pot of boiling water will deaden the sting. But leave them for too long and - like spinach - the leaves will wilt too far, and start to lose flavour, texture and goodness. Treat the cooked nettle leaves as you would treat cooked spinach leaves.

In rare cases, nettle tea can cause stomach cramps or diarrhea. If this occurs, discontinue or reduce your use of it. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should sparingly use the herb in consultation with the doctor. This is because it can act as a diuretic.

Aside from making a somewhat pleasant drink, stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are a great source of vitamin C and apparently help alleviate rheumatic pain. They can also be used to make soup and are an important plant for a variety of wildlife. It's a Belgian dream - a beer with a lot of health benefits.

Packed with a variety of polyphenolic compounds and pigments, nettle leaf detox drinks reduce liver inflammation. A regular cleanse with nettle leaf detox drinks can help lower blood pressure and improve the heart's antioxidant defenses.

What flavor is nettle? ›

Nettle tastes like spinach, but a bit punchier. "It's a distinctive taste, characteristic of edible wild plants in general: a bright green note that makes you sit up and pay attention, with a peppery zing.

Taste: Once cooked, nettles taste like a mix between spinach and cucumber; fresh and wholesome. They make a great addition to dishes, adding a zing of flavour and a splash of colour. Nettle is great in sauces, risottos and soups.

Red dead nettle is a crisp and somewhat succulent herb that may dry the mouth slightly. Its flavor is mild, with notes of radish and root vegetables, and an aftertaste of iron.

The real strength of honey is that it adds potency and lightness to beer, as other sugars do, yet smoothes out the roughness that inevitably comes from adding sugar. We've found that honey also seems to knock the bitter edge off the hops while allowing some of the more subtle hop character to come through.

When using honey in wine making before the fermentation, you want to use it in-place-of or instead-of the sugar called for in the wine recipe you are using. As a general rule-of-thumb you can replace 1 pound of sugar with 1.2 to 1.3 pounds of honey. You can also use a wine hydrometer to determine how much honey to add.

Honey garlic, ginger, turmeric, and other savory honey ferments are also good for your immune system and an excellent condiment to have around in the kitchen. Directions: Rather than give dozens of recipes, I encourage you to use this simple process for any fruit or vegetable you choose.

Some beer styles take over the flavor, and the honey addition isn't as upfront. Honey beer is sweet and smooth from the honey's texture. A lot of honey beers include herbs and spices in the recipe that partner with the sweetness to make intricate and complex profiles.