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

Nettles, also known as Stinging Nettles, are delicious and versatile wild plants. Their signature sting disappears when the nettles are cooked, so they can be harvested as greens, drunk as a mineral-rich tea, or even used to make this delicious nettle beer recipe.

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Although nettles are so widely distributed that they are easy to wild harvest, when we arrived on our homestead, we could not find any stinging nettle, although we were wildly successful in foraging for wood nettles. I started some stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) by seed and planted them in a few moist and shady spots.

When I received a copy of Wild Drinks and co*cktails, by Emily Han,I was immediately drawn to the nettle beer recipe. With plenty of nettles growing in the backyard, I harvested the tender tops and began making this simple fermented beverage. Here’s the recipe, adapted with permission from Wild Drinks and co*cktails.

Recipe for Stinging Nettle Beer

Ingredients

8 ounces of fresh nettle tops or 4 ounces dried nettles

1/2 gallon water

1/2 cup turbinado or raw sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 teaspoon ale yeast

How to Make Nettle Beer

Step One: Harvest the top few inchesof fresh nettles – you will need 8 ounces for this recipe (I made 1/4 recipe). Be sure to wear gloves to avoid getting stung! If you do not have fresh nettles, you can make this recipe with dried nettles.

How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (2)

Step Two: Place the nettles and water in a pot and bring to a boil on the stove. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (3)

Step Three: Line a strainer with a fine mesh cloth (cheesecloth will work great) and strain the nettle liquid into a large bowl or crock. Be sure to squeeze the cheesecloth to extract all of the liquid from the nettles. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

Cool the liquid to room temperature and then add the lemon juice, then sprinkle the yeast on top of the liquid. Cover the bowl or crock with a towel and let it sit at room temperature, out ofdirect sunlight, for three days.

How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (4)

Step Four: After three days, strain your nettle beer through a fine mesh sieve and funnel it into bottles, leaving at least one inch of headspace. We like to reuse Grolsch beer bottles for this purpose (you can sometimes find them at thrift stores, or on Craigslist).

The author advises placing the beer in cool storage for one week and “burping” the bottles daily. However, we opted to not burp the bottlesto maximize carbonation. If you do not burp the bottles, be sure to check on them daily to ensure your bottles will not over-carbonate and explode!

Step Five: After one week, transfer to the refrigerator and drink within one year. Enjoy the lemony-tangy refreshing flavor of your homemade nettle beer!

If you’d like to try your hand at making other wildcrafted and seasonal beverages, check out my posts on how to make homemade sodaandhow to make shrubs, and my book review of Wild Drinks and co*cktails (and other inspiring homesteading books!).

Yield: 1/2 gallon

How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (6)

Tangy and mineral rich, this wild harvested and fermented nettle beer recipe is a delicious drink, reminiscent of hard cider, and easy to make at home!

Prep Time30 minutes

Cook Time15 minutes

Additional Time3 days

Total Time3 days 45 minutes

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces of fresh nettle tops or 4 ounces dried nettles
  • 1/2 gallon water
  • 1/2 cup turbinado or raw sugar
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ale yeast

Instructions

  1. Harvest the top few inchesof fresh nettles – you will need 8 ounces for this recipe (I made 1/4 recipe). Be sure to wear gloves to avoid getting stung! If you do not have fresh nettles, you can make this recipe with dried nettles.
  2. Place the nettles and water in a pot and bring to a boil on the stove. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.
  3. Line a strainer with a fine mesh cloth (cheesecloth will work great) and strain the nettle liquid into a large bowl or crock. Be sure to squeeze the cheesecloth to extract all of the liquid from the nettles. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
  4. Cool the liquid to room temperature and then add the lemon juice, then sprinkle the yeast on top of the liquid. Cover the bowl or crock with a towel and let it sit at room temperature, out ofdirect sunlight, for three days.
  5. After three days, strain your nettle beer through a fine mesh sieve and funnel it into bottles, leaving at least one inch of headspace. We like to reuse Grolsch beer bottles for this purpose (you can sometimes find them at thrift stores, or on Craigslist).
  6. After one week, transfer to the refrigerator and drink within one year. Enjoy the lemony-tangy refreshing flavor of your homemade nettle beer!

Notes

The author advises placing the beer in cool storage for one week and “burping” the bottles daily. However, we opted to not burp the bottlesto maximize carbonation. If you do not burp the bottles, be sure to check on them daily to ensure your bottles will not over-carbonate and explode!

Pin it for Later:

How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (7)

More homesteading inspiration!

  • Foraging with Kids
  • 14 Uses for Black Walnuts
  • Wild Ramp Pesto Recipe
  • Fermented Cranberry Salsa Recipe
  • How to Bottle Hard Apple Cider
How to Make Nettle Beer Recipe | Homestead Honey (2024)

FAQs

How to make beer using honey? ›

Heat 3 gallons cold water to 155° F. Mash-in grains and hold at 150° F for 1 hour. Sparge with 3 gallons of 170° F water and collect 5.5 gallons runoff. Add extracts and honey and stir to dissolve.

Is nettle beer good for you? ›

Aside from making a somewhat pleasant drink, stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are a great source of vitamin C and apparently help alleviate rheumatic pain.

Does nettle beer contain alcohol? ›

Nettle Beer Recipe

Light, refreshing and mildly alcoholic, don't expect this spring tonic to hang around for long. You will need a few days patience while it ferments though, just a few days...

How to make nettle liquid fertiliser? ›

How do I make it?
  1. Fill a large bucket or bin with nettle leaves and stems, bruising the foliage first. ...
  2. Fill three-quarters of the bucket with water to allow room for the foam that will be created during the brewing process.
  3. Leave for 3 – 4 weeks to brew, stirring every couple of days.
Oct 10, 2023

How much honey to use in beer? ›

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.

What is beer made with honey called? ›

Mead (/miːd/), also called honey wine, and 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. The alcoholic content ranges from about 3.5% ABV to more than 20%.

Who should not drink nettle? ›

Interactions. Pregnant people should not take nettle or drink nettle tea. Due to a lack of research, children under the age of 12 years should also avoid nettle. It is important that people with existing conditions and those who take certain medications speak with a healthcare professional before trying nettle.

Is too much nettle bad for you? ›

Stinging nettle is generally considered safe when used as directed. Occasional side effects include mild stomach upset, fluid retention, sweating, diarrhea, and hives or rash (mainly from topical use). It is important to be careful when handling the nettle plant because touching it can cause an allergic rash.

What is the difference between dead nettle and stinging nettle? ›

White Dead-nettle are low growing, and can reach a maximum height of 60cm. Stinging Nettles, however, can get as tall as 150cm. Stinging Nettles have long hairs on their stems, whereas a White Dead-nettle will only have short hairs. White Dead-nettles have distinctive white flowers.

How to make nettle tea? ›

To prepare nettle leaf tea, bring 10 ounces of water to a boil over a hot stove, then pour a tablespoon of fresh nettle – or a teaspoon of dried nettle – into the water. Allow the nettle to steep for 5-10 minutes, strain, and serve. SOURCES: Getty Stewart: “How to Harvest, Dry, Freeze, and Use Stinging Nettle.”

What should you not use nettle fertiliser on? ›

Use your nettle fertiliser around the base of your garden plants, fruit and veg, and watch them grow! Don't use on small seedlings as the fertiliser will be too strong and will damage them.

What is the best oil to infuse nettles with? ›

Dry Stinging Nettle Oil Infusion Ingredients: - Dried stinging nettle leaves and stems - High-quality carrier oil (such as olive oil, coconut oil, or jojoba oil) - Clean, sterilized glass jar with a tight-fitting lid Instructions: 1.

Can you juice raw nettle? ›

A vibrant Spring tonic, fresh Nettle Juice is full of minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. With just a few ingredients thrown in the blender your super-nutritious green juice is ready in minutes! Nettle, how I love thee! This amazing plant is powerfully nutritious.

How much honey to prime beer? ›

Use 1 cup of honey per 5 gallon batch to replace the priming sugar, follow the same procedure outlined in your beer recipe kit instructions to prime your beer and put it in beer bottles. Boil the honey in 8-16 oz. of water and pour it into the bottom of your bottling bucket and rack your beer into the honey solution.

Why add honey to beer? ›

Honey is a versatile brewing ingredient that can be used in a broad range of styles to contribute flavor, increase alcohol content, and it can even serve as the priming sugar for bottle conditioning.

How much gravity does honey add to beer? ›

If you had 5 gallons of 1.059 beer, you had 295 gravity points in the fermenter. Honey is around 40 points per pound. If you added 4 pounds, then you added 160 gravity points. Honey is 12 lbs to the gallon, so you also added 1/3 gallon of volume.

How many beers does it take to make a teaspoon of honey? ›

The drones (males) live a few weeks. And the queen has a lifespan of two to three years, on average. It would take 12 honeybees 72 weeks (six weeks each) to make a single teaspoon of honey. There are 64 teaspoons in a pound of honey.

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