STINGER BEER

[trucker5774]

OK guys here's what I did (sorry for the delay) Most of the recipe I just made up from what I had in and added the common things you see listed in other recipes.

I picked a variety of young and mature nettles......simply what I came across. 3 carrier bags weighed in about 2kg. I wore leather gloves and had tight cuffs (not a single sting)

2kg nettles
1kg light DME
500g medium DME
500g glucose
50g cream of tartar
1 lemon juiced
1 orange juiced
1 tea spoon of yeast nutrient
1 sachet of yeast (spare from a youngs bitter kit)
Brew length was 17 litres
O.G. 1045

Boiled the nettles for about 20 minutes (in batches because I haven't built my boiler for AG yet) I strained and squeezed then added the juice to the FV. I then boiled the DME and sugar to disolve it and also added to the FV. Added the remaining ingredients. Once cool at 20C the O.G. was 1045 so I did not add any more water, hence the brew length of 17 litres. Rehydrated the yeast and pitched into the well aerated wort. Lid on FV with airlock. After 3 hours there was good fermentation and a 20 mm blanket formed on the surface.

Had nettles and cheese for tea (sag paneer) and went to bed!

[mrbenbod]

leather gloves sounds like the answer to the stinging problem, and far more fetching then huge yellow rubber things.

[robharper]

Nice one, trucker, I look forward to hearing how that works out.

One question comes to mind though... I know that when making country wines you often add acid (hence orange or lemon juice, or cream of tartar) largely to improve the environment for the yeast. In the case of the recipe here, where most of the fermentables are malts (so this is very much a beer recipe), are the acids required? Thinking about this, I'm guessing that they are probably a good idea because we're not getting the acids from the hops, but does anyone know if that is actually the case?

[trucker5774]

My intention here was to make beer not wine. Ive have seen lots of recipes which seemed to be more wine like. This may account for the acids being included in the recipes. I always prefer to keep things simple and not add things which just aren't needed. I figured the addition would not be harmfull so I included it! The fermentable are mainly malts with some brewing sugar added to raise the OG slightly. I'm not sure what difference the nettles will make to hops. I looked at it in simple term of they will provide the bitterness. Like robharper, I will be very interested to find out if anyone has more answers. I will be able to privide a little more light in a couple of weeks at supping time!

[Tequilla6]

When doing an AG brew we would adjust our mash and sparge liquor prior to the mash and then measure the PH of our mash wanting it to be somewhere around 5.3, this aids mash reaction, hop extraction etc. It's the grains that give us the acidity we want and providing the buffering capabilities of our initial water are not too high (We adjust as above if required) the grains will do this for us.

The Alpha acids from the hops are used for Bitterness and not for a reduction in the PH of our wort.

On a further note I did a nettle tea yesterday with 20gm of nettle tops and 400ml of water boiled for 30 min

I ended up with 100ml of nettle tea which was of a green colour and cloudy consistency. Although the nettle is related to the Hop plant (Cannabis plant as well I found out) the actual tea, which was very nice to drink it was not very bitter, nor did it have a very strong aroma. At least none that we could use. I would say had more of a malty taste to it and using that component it maybe usable but not in the way I had hoped. It would be easy to do a beer with nettles but not a nettle beer.

I have some hope of using the green liquor and have now put it aside in a glass bottle to see how well it will fine down and what colour the resultant liquid will be. My thoughts are that if used in a very light summer beer the addition of the nettles will give a green tinge to the pale beer which would be acceptable similar to the gimmicky "Sign of Spring" brew. Investigations however show that nettles were in distant past used with stouts or dark beers. Was this because they only had access to the smoked brown malts at that time Very tired last night but moving down the path of a smoked nettle beer which we would have to use Bavarian Smoked Malt which as far as I know the only smoked malt still available I came across this very interesting article. Seems now I have two brews to do. One a light beer and one a dark beer.

Barliman's Best

I also found an artical discussing Hall and Woodhouse's "Stinger" and it mentioned in the artical that it is dry hopped with Challenger, Target and Styrian Goldings" the first bit of concrete information on the light beer. Whislt I may not know the specific quantities or If I will even use these specific hops the info that "Stinger" is dry hopped it interesting in itself.

The Nettle and the Damage Done

Anyway off to order me some Rauchmalz

Cheers

[trucker5774]

Very interesting what Tequilla6 says about adjusting the PH of the sparge liquor. I have always found that a little complicated (but then I dont do it regularly) In the case of AG it makes sense as the PH will make a difference to the sugar extraction in the mash.In this recipe we already have the sugars. So........the added acid is reducing the PH in the nettle brew....Is it helping or harming?

[mrbenbod]

I think, as already mentioned by RobHarper, yeast needs an acidic environment.
Tequilla mentions the grains in an AG lower the pH so if the malt in your recipe is lowering the pH then i'm guessing the acid wouldn't be needed.
You may have lowered the pH more than needed.
What effect, other then making the brew taste a little 'tart', this might have is another question.

[Tequilla6]

Ok Guys,

I have also completed my "Nettle Beer" this weekend and it's bubbling along nicely. I decided to carry out an experiment to see if I could do a really pale beer and have the addition of the nettles give it a green tinge. Making an infusion of nettles and letting it clear for a few days I got what I can only describe as an olive colour. Adding this to a can of left over Carling from a barbecue to see if the colour would take I found no real difference in the colouration of the brew so the light Nettle beer seems to be out and the Carling got poured down the sink. What you didn't expect me to drink it did you?
So that left me with the recipe for Barliman's Best abeit with a few changes.

Recipe 12Litres @85% Efficiency

Grain Schedule
Pale Malt 735gm
Pale Crystal malt 440gm
Rauchmalz 735gm

Gruit Schedule
Dried Yarrow 10gm for 60min
Dried Nettle Tops 100gm for 15min
Fresh Sage 25gm for 15min
Dried Heather Flowers 25gm for 5min

Yeast used was Sal-S04 (500ml Starter)

OG 1.040 Expected G 1.009

The Grain mix was to try and recreate the smoked brown malt of old, with the Gruit mix using only herbs mentioned in the LOTR (With the exception of the Yarrow, which was used because of my concern the the nettles would not contribute enough bitterness to the brew) Liquor treatment used the GW's WTC default for Bitter. As mentioned the beer is fermenting away with no issues, the only thing I have done this time is to skim the top of the trub off the brew after one day as there seemed to be an awful lot of trub brought to the surface. As my hop strainer has been designed for whole hops the small particulates from the herbs seem to have gone through the strainer although the wort when run off looked clear enough. What I have got a a dark brown ale with a very nice herb, woody and nutty aroma. The test sample from the FV prior to the pitching of the yeast was interesting indeed and I think once the sweetness of the wort has been fermented out it's going to be a very nice and somewhat different brew. The addition of some wheat inthe mix next time for head retention maybe in order as I do not know how the herb addition will affect the capacity to for a head on the beer.

Anyway nice experiment and I will post a picture of the brew once fermented and conditioned. If it gets bottled in time it maybe part of my tasting session at the next Cambridge Beer meet.

Cheers

[Gill]

Hi Trucker,

Thanks for the stinger beer recipe - might try that at some point, though the nettles are getting a little old and tough by now. Let us know what it's like, if you survive it as it sounds like a bit of a beastie! Can I come around and share??

I'm hoping to go elderflower picking this weekend too, for this year's batch of elderflower mead or champagne. Good stuff!

Gill x

[Gill]

Though Tequilla's recipe sounds rather pleasant too... Sorry Trucker, might have to be unfaithful to you.

Gill x

[Tequilla6]

Can I tempt you with some of my Elderflower Champagne as well....LOL

I've got two following this recipe already, another one Blood hell It look like it maybe quadruplets at this rate...

PS Watch the Gruit recipe Gill, it definitely not your normal Ale Brew.

[Gill]

Watch the Gruit recipe Gill, it definitely not your normal Ale Brew.

That's fine, I don't really do 'normal' anyway. Won't be for a while anyhow, I've a pretty full brewing schedule for the next while.

I recently found out that there's not ONE woman in the Scottish craft brewers' association! How rotten is that? Sorry, know that's OT...I just think it's a shame. We need to get more lassies in on the act, obviously.

Gill x

[robharper]

I recently found out that there's not ONE woman in the Scottish craft brewers' association! How rotten is that? Sorry, know that's OT...I just think it's a shame. We need to get more lassies in on the act, obviously.

Hi Gill. To stay off-topic, my wife has a female cousin who has a degree in brewing and is currently head brewer in a small Canadian brewery (having worked for a few breweries this side of the Atlantic). Unfortunately I've never tried their beer, but she knows her stuff, so I expect it is decent.

[Tequilla6]

A Real musical chairs yesterday with the brewing. Guess that means I need more FV's....

My 23L of Red Wine went from it's 25L FV into an old 5 Gal Backberry juice container, the old FV was cleaned of red wine and sterilized and my mead moved to there so I could then clean the 10 Gal mead FV and then the Mead went back again to it's original home. It was then time to move the Gruit ale from Its 33L FV into the again freed 25L FV where it will sit until re-rack/bottling time. WooHoo, I now have an empty 33L FV for my next AG brew.

I noted that although I skimmed off quite a lot of trub there was still plenty left both on the top and bottom of the FV. Note to self, Gruit ales do need skimming and racking. It's looking pretty clear in a brown sort of way, but nothing like my summer bitters for clarity yet. In syphoning off the brew into it's new home there was during the process some big lumps of trub flying through the syphon at intermittent intervals, mid floaters I called them. Although this ale I am confident will clear with no issues with time and when I come to bottle it should be pretty good. The overall flavour from the herbs and heather has calmed down somewhat and the main taste I'm getting is a real sense of maltiness which from the sample taken. Measured 1.010 SG so has finished fermenting and then sample drunk to give you an idea of what it tasted like. I think the maltiness is coming from the nettles and the level of bitterness could be upped a tad or two. I was worried about the strong smell of the Yarrow but again this has mellowed and I would say it really needs the bitterness up a little to compensate for the sweet maltiness. But I guess that's because I'm used to drinking beer with hops maybe. It will be interesting once it gets a little carbonation. I am now sure I understand a little better the theory around the use of Nettles in beer. It would mean that any nettle beer would for our tastes today need a standard bittering hop and as the nettles seem to bring a maltiness to the fore the dry hopping that Hall and Woodhouse employ in their "Stinger"would give the pleasant hoppy aroma for the pallets of today.

Got a nice picture set aside for the bottle labels once it's done.

Cheers

[Tequilla6]

Well after a trip to Beers of Europe, I can now talk with some confidence about "Stinger Beer" the bumpf says that the tingling sensation comes from the Nettles. Personally I think this is rubbish. It comes from the carbonation in the bottle and the dry hopping of the Challenger and Styrian Golding I would hazard a guess, although if they were dry hopping as one of the reviews suggest, I would expect more of an aroma to come from the beer. It had a light bitterness to it and the only indication that there were nettles in the brew was the slight olive yellow colour of the brew itself. This reminded me of the colour of the Carling/Nettle tea infusion experiment. It's funny because I could not get the nutty maltiness that seemed so prominent in my Nettle tea infusion.

However It was a pleasant enough beer and If the hop combination is correct I would be happy to give this 25L of room in my beer space as an experiment sometime.