The urban guide to becoming self sufficient'ish
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Treacle stout is voted my no# 1 beer consistantly. Is the nettle ale sopporiffic due to a chemical in the nettles, or the alcohol? As a rampant insomniac i would love to know!Stonehead wrote:I've made some interesting old brews over the years, albeit not the medicinal ones. Nettle ale has quite soporific qualities, as anyone who's come to one of our barbecues will know. Mangel ale is fairly good according to the OH, who's my resident expert on ale. Treacle ale is an acquired taste. Elderberry wine is very good—like a well aged port. Spiced potato wine verges on lethal. Parsnip wine leaves people cross-eyed. Liquorice vodka blackens the tongue and anything more than a couple of small shots has rather dire laxative effects…
But I always find myself going back to scrumpy. Oo-arr.
I'm sure there's something in the nettles. Nettle beer on it's own, fairly high alcohol but no ill effects. Glass of NB before dinner (less than half a pint) followed by a couple of glasses of red wine with dinner and result, massive hangover. I almost never get a hangover, even after a use it all up mix of drinks.frozenthunderbolt wrote:Is the nettle ale sopporiffic due to a chemical in the nettles, or the alcohol? As a rampant insomniac i would love to know!
Let me guess, that'll be C J J Berry then... It occasionally crops up on one or other of the brewing fora. People have made it, but nobody likes it. Mind you, the beer was probably all pretty nasty (at least to the modern palate) back in those days.bill1953 wrote:Treacle Ale was the first home brew I ever did aged 14. The strangest old recipe I came across was Cock Ale which was 17th century and was ale brewed with the usual bitter ale inredients plus the addition of a cooked cockerel. Never tried it.
I can't remember how long exactly, but I know it was certainly left for days.MKG wrote:As far as I've ever been able to see, that cockerel - being protein-based - acted as a fining agent. I hope they took it out pretty quickly. There are similar apocryphal tales about rats in the beer.
YEEEEECCCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!
Mike
Could well have been. I remember it was an old book and Cock Ale was in it two. A lot of the recipies were for brewing huge quantities up to a hogshead of 54 gallons (enough for the weekend). They also talked about how much duty you would have to pay as it was well before the tax English home brew beer laws being repealed in 1968 or 1969.gregorach wrote:Let me guess, that'll be C J J Berry then... It occasionally crops up on one or other of the brewing fora. People have made it, but nobody likes it. Mind you, the beer was probably all pretty nasty (at least to the modern palate) back in those days.bill1953 wrote:Treacle Ale was the first home brew I ever did aged 14. The strangest old recipe I came across was Cock Ale which was 17th century and was ale brewed with the usual bitter ale inredients plus the addition of a cooked cockerel. Never tried it.
Ah - that won't be Berry then, but there's a good chance that it's the source he took it from.bill1953 wrote:Could well have been. I remember it was an old book and Cock Ale was in it two. A lot of the recipies were for brewing huge quantities up to a hogshead of 54 gallons (enough for the weekend). They also talked about how much duty you would have to pay as it was well before the tax English home brew beer laws being repealed in 1968 or 1969.
I tried treacle ale because as a 14 yr old I could not buy proper homebrew ingredients from the shops. It was just treacle, more brown sugar and the 'yeast' was provided by floating bread in it as I remember.gregorach wrote:Ah - that won't be Berry then, but there's a good chance that it's the source he took it from.bill1953 wrote:Could well have been. I remember it was an old book and Cock Ale was in it two. A lot of the recipies were for brewing huge quantities up to a hogshead of 54 gallons (enough for the weekend). They also talked about how much duty you would have to pay as it was well before the tax English home brew beer laws being repealed in 1968 or 1969.
I don't understand this fascination with brewing beer out of weeds, mulch and old bedsteads myself... In my book, beer is made from malt, hops, water, and yeast. The most unconventional I've ever gone was to brew an unhopped ale bittered with Rowan berries. Interesting as an experiment, but not one I'd be in a massive hurry to repeat. The result was entirely drinkable, even quite pleasant - but that was a couple of years ago and I've still got some bottles left. Usually a good beer gets wiped out in a couple of months.
When i use it, i am using a hopped malt extract of reasonable quality and then replacing a part of the sugar that would be added to the kit with the correct amount of treacle (you need to calculate the sugar per weight of treacle). It is very nice after 6 months to mature.bill1953 wrote: I tried treacle ale because as a 14 yr old I could not buy proper homebrew ingredients from the shops. It was just treacle, more brown sugar and the 'yeast' was provided by floating bread in it as I remember.
You're very patientfrozenthunderbolt wrote:It is very nice after 6 months to mature.bill1953 wrote: I tried treacle ale because as a 14 yr old I could not buy proper homebrew ingredients from the shops. It was just treacle, more brown sugar and the 'yeast' was provided by floating bread in it as I remember.
