r/Homebrewing • u/hikeforpurpose • Aug 11 '26
Stinging Nettle "beer"
Hey all,
As part of my experiments and first steps into brewing, I really wanted to try and make some Nettle beer or hooch, depending on how stricly you take the definition of beer.
I am also an outdoorsy type, and I like foraging. Hence the interest.
So here is the end result and the recipe I used.
Ale yeast (I pitched collected yeast from my Belgian blonde, S04)
Brown sugar - 260 grams
Vinegar- 7 grams
Tops of Nettles one 2 liter ziplock bag full
Water, I used Nürnberger land tap water. 2.7 liters
Fermented everything after boiling and straining into my 5 liter bucket, with airlock for a week. And bottled with a teaspoon of sugar. Got a lot better the more it aged, after 6 weeks it was at it peak.
Tasted like more of a mead or sparkly wine, but with a very nice herbal taste. I really liked it, but I don't think I would scramble into the hedgerows every week for it. I do think I would make it a yearly spring tradition.
Did anybody else try Nettle beer out already?
Proost
https://planetaryexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/stinging-nettle-beer-1-1.jpg
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u/jones5112 Aug 11 '26
I tried this in Australia, was an absolute pain to make and tasted like dirt haha
Dunno if we have different nettles over here, but glad yours turned out alright!
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u/hikeforpurpose Aug 11 '26
haha, sad. Maybe the German nettles are really different then. I am one of those weirdos that is not that affected by nettle stings, so I thought it wasn't so bad working with them.
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u/Practical_Outcome771 Aug 11 '26
Nice - I've made nettle beer with both malt extract and grains as well as different hops. Think SMASH brewing but with nettles. I had opened a bottle after two years and couldn't really taste the nettles so definitely a 'drink while young' beer
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u/i_i_v_o Aug 11 '26
I made a 'welcome spring' drink with nettles and dandelions, brown sugar and kveik yeast (it was not an informed choice, it was what i had on hand). Turned out meh, but after 6 months it was great and after another 6months it was excellent. So definately save some bottles for later. I found this to be true with most herb stuff.
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u/idrawinmargins Aug 11 '26
There is a brewery in my state that makes beers like this. Lots of there beer is native plants that they have setup plots to harvest for their beers. One is a nettle beer too, others are a 49 ingredient beer, a chanterelle beer, black walnut beer (super tasty), etc.
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u/OE2KB Aug 11 '26
Scratch Brewing has a Stinging Nettles recipe in “The Home Brewers Almanac”.
Their mushroom beer is AMAZING
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u/Buffcoat1 Aug 11 '26
There used to be a brewery/farm in or around Seattle, I think it was Slippery Pig, that used stuff from and around the property to make beer. It's been a while but I seem to remember a cucumber ale hopped with nettles.
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u/IronSlanginRed Aug 11 '26
Nice. Yeah you made a sugar wash with nettle flavoring. Fun experiment. Very similar to mead but a more neutral flavor from the base.
I wonder what it would be if you used malt extract instead of sugar as the base, woth the nettles still as a bittering/flavor addition like hops.
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u/Disastrous_Okra_4341 Aug 17 '26
What initially inspired this? This is a cool idea
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u/hikeforpurpose Aug 18 '26
The video of Atomic schrimp over on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTTq6xq4XWc
He combines it with malt extract if I remember correctly. With looking around I landed on the way I did it. Which didn't require me to order stuff.
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u/Free_trampoline Aug 11 '26
I was under the impression the nettles were just used for flavouring instead of hops, did you take any readings? What kind of ABV% do you think you’ve got? This is interesting!