Nettle Beer

Country brews such as Nettle Beer are generally quite speedy to make. When fermentation ended I added a dessertspoon of sugar before bottling to feed any remaining yeast and make sure the final product had some fizz to it. My Nettle brew bottled up as three pints, plus a little more that I put in a screw-cap bottle for me to taste before unleashing it upon the world.

After a few weeks to mature I tried it out on friends in the park. The verdict: "Lovely", "Refreshing", "Is there any more?". Well yes, there are plenty of nettles, but aren't Elderflowers just about ready to be picked? The most often asked question was "how strong is it?". I've never worked out the alcohol content of a beer or wine before. Apparently you're supposed to measure the specific gravity before fermentation begins and compare it to specific gravity when fermentation ends. Next time I'll know.

I don't want to make too many claims for the therapeutic benefits of Nettle Beer as I feel it justifies itself by being such a fabulous, cheap and easy drink, but I am reminded of a phone-call from my days of manning a Herbal Medicine advice line. A man rang to ask how long he should boil his nettles for home-made beer. His own suggested advice of 40 minutes seemed to be working pretty well, so we agreed that he should stick with that. He then went on to say that as a result of drinking Nettle Beer not only had his hair grown back but it was "the right colour"! Nettle has traditionally been useful as a green vegetable, available early in the season. It is rich in minerals such as iron which may help to support hair growth. Do you need any more excuses?

What to do with Nettles

Spring is, apparently, three weeks late due to the UK having had a properly cold winter. There's now evidence of life out in the parks, Buds are sprouting from twigs, then bursting into leaf. It's all a promise of things to come. But for now, one of the few plants available for harvest is Nettle. It's so ubiquitous, so useful that the question is "what shall I make?". I'm up to my eyeballs in Nettle tincture so maybe I should try something more fun - Nettle Beer.

I gathered what seemed like a good, big bagful from the edge of a sports-area which is not used for exercising dogs. I used my thickest pair of rubber gloves for harvesting as I don't like being stung. Back home I had a look at some recipes from both Maud Grieve and Audrey Wynne Hatfield's book "How to enjoy your weeds".

Their recipes require 1-2lbs of nettle for a gallon of beer. How much had I picked? Only half a pound. It was washed in the bath, simmered, for around 30 minutes in 4 pints of water then strained. To this liquid I added 8oz of golden caster sugar, the peel and juice of an elderly lemon, 1/2 oz of cream of tartar and 1oz of wizened ginger chopped up small. For that quantity of beer there was no point going out specially for fresher ingredients. By this time it was late in the evening and the mixture was too hot to add the yeast.


Next morning I warmed up a jug-full of the Nettle tea, poured it back in the bucket and sprinkled on 1/2 oz of wine yeast. Fresh baking yeast would probably be more than adequate but wine yeast was all I had. This may mean that the final alcohol content is higher, and the beer drier than intended.

I started the fermentation in a bucket covered in cling film with a hole poked through and plugged with cotton wool to allow gases to escape without allowing in insects. After the cotton-wool plug fell in, I transferred everything (bar soggy cotton wool) to a demi-john to complete fermentation. It was about 5 days before the bubbles in the air lock slowed to a virtual standstill.

Emollient wash

A query surfaced recently on a Yahoo group for herbalists. One practitioner was trying to wean a couple of patients with itchy skin problems off using Aqueous Cream as a wash. But every time they stopped using the stuff they'd start itching again.

Thought I'd have a go at making my own emollient wash out of simple kitchen ingredients.

We usually use soap or a detergent such as a liquid soap or shower gel to clean ourselves. These products bind with the fat on the surface of the skin and help to wash us clean. Of course this means that we lose a protective layer of sebum (skin oil) which exists to help protect the skin and prevent water loss. Not good if you have itchy skin to start with.

I found some honey, but it had started to crystallise, so I put the pot in a water bath to heat gently. I also had some finely milled oats, but thought that it might still be a bit rough, so I whizzed it in my coffee grinder then sieved out any coarse bits of bran. Both of these ingredients are brilliant at cleaning and soothing sore skin. I ended up with of 50g of nicely runny honey and 20g of sieved oats, to which I added 20g of olive oil. Mind you, if I'd had any chickweed oil left, that would have been fabulous.

It worked quite well as a hand wash. I put it in a small jar, spooned a small amount out, then massaged it into wet hands. My skin felt lovely and smooth. The next day, however, I wasn't sure that the mix wasn't fermenting a little. There seemed to be some bubbles near the surface.

What if I re-heated the mix to destroy bacteria, then made it into a solid bar! Easy to use, less chance of going mouldy. The mixture was placed into a small pan and heated with more oats - straight from the pack this time - and some cocoa butter. None of this was measured.

I ended up with a bar like a soggy flapjack. It was no easier to use than the original gloop, but the dog appreciated a small lump of it as a treat.

If I were to repeat this experiment I would recommend either simmering the sieved, ground oats briefly with the honey to kill off bacteria, or toasting it on a tray in a low oven which would also reduce the moisture content. I don't feel that the addition of extra oats and cocoa butter helped in the least.

Chickweed Ointment

Nine days is enough, surely, for chickweed oil to infuse.

I sieved the herb through muslin, then pressed it with a potato ricer (like a giant garlic press). The exhausted plant material was crispy, like the fried "seaweed" you get from Chinese restaurants. That must have been the whole point of the prolonged infusion time. There was absolutely no water left in the mix. I had always heard that you should infuse the herb in oil, strain it, then separate the oil from any moisture produced by the plant as the watery part could go mouldy. The process produced a very rich dark green oil which can be used as it is, but it's easier to apply as an ointment.

Before and after: the "light and fruity" olive oil I started with, next to the finished Chickweed oil.


A rough guide to making ointment is 10 parts oil to 1 part beeswax. I had around 280ml of oil which was heated gently in a small pan with 28 grams of beeswax. As it's easy to overheat oil, this can also be done in a double boiler or a heat-proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. I managed to fill 10 x 30ml brown jars with the ointment, plus one clear 15ml jar just to show the colour.

What Maud Grieve has to say about Chickweed (Stellaria media):
"Demulcent , refrigerant. It is held in great repute among herbalists, used mostly in the form of an ointment".

This means that it is cooling and soothing, which accounts for its use on ulcers, external abscesses, piles and sores. I most often use a chickweed based cream for the treatment of eczema. A cream will be more cooling than an ointment as the evaporation of the water in it will take heat away from the area that it's applied to.

The addition of a few drops of Lavender essential oil to the ointment will help with itching and soreness by reducing inflammation. I would use this for small or uncomplicated outbreaks of mild eczema. If the problem is more serious or widespread, or if treating a small child, I would recommend visiting a health professional.

Chickweed Oil

A few years ago the council placed a number of concrete planters around the estate and filled them with tulips. I've seen no evidence of flowers since, so maybe the squirrels got 'em. Last week I noticed they were full of chickweed. This is great, because the containers are too tall for dogs to have peed on them so I have no worries about using the plants.

I pulled up what seemed to be a generous quantity of chickweed, the roots were mostly retained, and I picked a few twigs and leaves out of my harvest. In James Green's "The Herbal Medicine Maker's Handbook" there were a number of options for infusing a herbal oil. I chose one which required a slow cooker (or maybe a yogurt-maker) then looked on ebay for a second-hand one that was being sold locally. Once that particular auction went way beyond my limit I nipped out to my nearest catalogue shop and bought one for half the price.


I wilted the Chickweed for a day or so in the fridge until I found time to get back to it, then chopped it and put it in the slow-cooker covered in olive oil. By this time the amount looked pathetically meagre. Then I discovered that the instructions recommend infusing the oil for 10 days! I've previously only infused dried leaves or petals in oil over a pan of simmering water for a maximum of 4 hours!

Here's the amount of Chickweed and oil I used.


Not having used a slow cooker before, I was surprised at how quickly the temperature of my oil exceeded the recommended 38°C/100°F. I've been keeping the lid off the pot to regulate the temperature and the dial is turned to "warm". Possibly if I made a larger amount it wouldn't get so hot. Now we wait.

About this Blog

The purpose of this blog is to record my attempt to live the country life in the middle of the city. Using books such as Maud Grieve's "A Modern Herbal" as a guide I will be roaming London's parks and open spaces trying to sort the useful weeds from the chaff. Some of these can then be harvested to infuse into oils or made into syrups, tinctures or vinegars. I may even brew wine or beer and have a go at herbal sweets.

These are the kinds of things I always intend to do, but rarely find the time. Now I have a puppy and am automatically out and about a couple of times a day, so no excuses.