Nettle beer

[Veganiah]

hey i kinda followed the recipe for nettle beer off this website but i put abit of extra yeast in and ginger, apple juice and a few other things.

thing is its been brewing for kquite a while now must be near a month well at least 3 weeks, anyway im sure its cos i put too much yeast in (me with limited homebrew knowledge wanted it stronger)
but yea its taking a long time and is still producing a lot of co2 in the keg also tasted abit yeasty less so now anyway i'll get to the point should i just keep adding suger till it tastes 'ok'??
also is it fine for it to be abit cloudy or will it settle on its own??

thanks for any replies

[MKG]

It'll keep fermenting as long as there's sugar to ferment - up to a limit of about 18% at which point the yeast will die. If it's been going for three weeks, you should now be approaching wine strength - about 13 to 15%. I note that you say "should i just keep adding sugar", so I assume that this is where the extra stuff has come from. You've successfully made nettle wine - congratulations - but it isn't going to be the nettle beer you were aiming for.

Beer is made with a limited amount of sugar to restrict the amount of alcohol produced, and is usually bottled just before fermentation ends or a SMALL amount of sugar is added immediately before bottling - this ensures that the beer isn't flat. Apart from that, no sugar at all should be added to the amount in the recipe.

I wouldn't throw your first attempt away (yet). Leave it alone and let it finish and clear - you may have something very nice on your hands. But if it's beer you're after, start again and follow the recipe.

[Veganiah]

cheers for the reply, stronger is not a problem.. all the better and yes its only a good thing if i have 40 pints of nettle wine

i just assumed as i put too much yeast in more sugar would use it up?? ive added extra sugar a couple of times now, will this be stopping the beer from clearing?
ive also made a tea wine which resembles muddy water and thats been going about two weeks although fermentation has stopped the murkiness is putting me off, will it clear by itself?

thanks again

[MKG]

Yes - it'll clear if you stop adding stuff. It's murky because the CO2 bubbles keep lifting all of the solids into suspension. When fermentation stops, this will all gradually fall to the bottom, and the clear liquid can be siphoned (or carefully poured) off the top.

One level teaspoon of dried yeast will ferment five gallons of liquid quite happily - you needn't add any more.

One word of warning - just increasing the alcohol in a brew might seem a good idea, but you'll probably just ruin the balance of the recipe. Certainly, the stuff will knock your socks off - but it'll probably just taste hot and rough.

[Veganiah]

the sugar i added the other day seems to have mostly been used up and its clearing....slowly. but it is definitely a success had a couple of glasses last night, tastes like a sort of gingery scrumpy but less acidic. suites my taste perfectly.

But yea thanks for the advice anyway, just gotta wait for the chai tea wine... not so sure about that one though.