# Stinging nettle wine



## chris (May 18, 2009)

Has anyone else made stinging nettle wine? And does it taste nice?


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## St Allie (May 18, 2009)

We don't have stinging nettles in auckland. It's listed in a lot of books as a popular wine though. If you have access to nettles, give it a go!

This extract from my home made wines, cordials and syrups book,

Nettle wine- Finished as a pale gold, sweet, country wine. ( can also be finished dry)
A 'country wine' is described as a robust flavoured, full bodied sweet wine, often spiced. Its alcohol content is about 16%. 

Allie


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## arcticsid (May 18, 2009)

G, tell Chris about your chili wine, it isn't a nettle but sounds to me like it has all the sting they may be looking for. LOL


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## Tom (May 18, 2009)

arcticsid said:


> G, tell Chris about your chili wine, it isn't a nettle but sounds to me like it has all the sting they may be looking for. LOL


LOL 
Wise guy !


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## arcticsid (May 19, 2009)

Thats why I make the big bucks Tom LOL


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## chris (May 19, 2009)

Thanks guys. I made some the other day and it seems to be 'brewing' quite well. I'll let you know how it goes


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## Madriver Wines (May 20, 2009)

Hey I got into a school of jelly fish once and they felt like a bunch of stinging nettles! Maybe jelly fish wine??


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## arcticsid (May 20, 2009)

Steve, jelly isn't too far off the radar, Luc has a wonderful recipe for wine made with Jam, I dought it will sting you.LOL

Hope the world finds you and yours good over there
Troy


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## St Allie (May 20, 2009)

ignores all the comments about weird wines...


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## chris (May 21, 2009)

Jelly wine


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## Madriver Wines (May 23, 2009)

he he jelly fish wine


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## St Allie (May 23, 2009)

Chris,

Just interested in where you got your recipe from for this wine, can you post it when you get time please?

Allie


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## chris (May 25, 2009)

St Allie said:


> Chris,
> 
> Just interested in where you got your recipe from for this wine, can you post it when you get time please?
> 
> Allie



"Nettle Wine Recipe
1 bag nettles 
1 gallon water 
1.2 kg sugar 
juice of one orange 
juice of one lemon 
1 heaped teaspoon wine yeast 
sterilising solution (for cleaning equpment before use) 
Instructions for nettle wine
At home I picked through the nettles again, removing bugs and bits of grass. Then the nettle tops went onto the stove in a large pot. I covered the nettles with about 4 pints of water and brought them to the boil. After 15 minutes gentle simmering I turned off the heat and after allowing it to cool for about 20 minutes strained the now light green juice into a large fermentation bucket. I added another 8 pints of boiled water, 1.2kg of sugar and the juice of one lemon and one orange. I stirred till the sugar was disolved, covered the bucket and left it to cool.

Later that day once the mixture had reached approximately blood temperature I checked the specific gravity (1080) which means that if all the sugar turns to alcohol the wine will be approximately 9%-12% alcohol.

I added a heaped teaspoon of wine yeast and stirred it in. I then stood the bucket on some insulating layers of newspaper and wrapped a blanket around it.

The next day the mix was beginning to bubble and continued to do so vigourously for 3 days. At this point I siphoned off the juice into a sterilized demijohn and topped it with a airlock.

Three weeks later a sludge had settled in the bottom of the demijohn, so siphoned to wine (can I call it wine yet?) to a clean demijohn and left it another 6 weeks. I was absolutely certain that the fermentation had finished so I bottled it and left the bottles on the shelf in the cupboard under the stairs.

2 weeks later I was curious and cracked open a bottle. As there was no sweetness left, I added two tablespoonfuls to the wine and drank a glass.

I liked it and drank the whole bottle. Was gently intoxicated and didn't have a hangover the next morning, so I class nettle wine as a total success."


I found that recipe on gardenspace.newarchaeology . com


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## St Allie (May 25, 2009)

Thankyou,

one more question.. how big was the bag of nettles you gathered approximately?

I'd like to add this to our recipe section but it needs to be precise enough for others to follow.

Cheers 

Allie


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## chris (May 26, 2009)

ok, I just filled a tesco bag with stinging nettles and boiled them up.


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## St Allie (May 26, 2009)

ok I'll bite..

How big is a tesco bag?

( 'how long is a piece of string?')

Allie

hehehehe


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## chris (May 29, 2009)

um you could fit 4 pints of milk in it? lol


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