Nettle beer and gorse wine are quick and easy to make

Plants such as gorse and nettle look sun-shiny and tempting and yes, they can be fermented into tasty tipples, says Valerie O’Connor.

WHO can remember the episode of the Simpsons when the town of Springfield was experiencing a modern-day prohibition?

With the boozer not allowed to sell any alcohol, an ever-creative Homer J started his own micro-brewery in the basement of the family home.

The secret craft brewery was well-hidden from Marge, who often heard explosions, as bath-tubs full of bubbling liquids fermented and farted.

Homer covered up these noises with excuses of a windy bottom, and the booze-making went on. Inevitably, Moe’s blew up and everything ended in reassuring, Simsonesque disaster.

Similarly, I have two recipes here for free booze made from nature, great weapons that I hope, should not blow up, and which could be a crafty fall back solution should prohibition ever come to Ireland.

Making drink like this is fun and rewarding, and the nettle beer is so fizzy, even Homer couldn’t be as gassy as this brew. This time of year, plants for the fermenting are throwing themselves at us.

The gorse has never looked so intensely sun-shiny, as it does this time of the year, and all around it seems to be saying, ‘If I look this beautiful, then imagine what I taste like?’

Gorse, or the furze bush, by it’s other name, has a delicious and deep sweet scent of a coconut that fell in love with a peach.

Drinks made from this prickly muse take on flavours that transport you straight to the Caribbean, and you can get them from ditches and hedgerows and ferment them right in your own kitchen.

A lovely old saying is that when gorse is out of blossom, kissing is out of fashion, as the plant is almost always flowering in some way.

The high point of this sunshine marvel is right about now, and as long as it smells sweet and sunny, you will get great results.

Every rose has it’s thorn, so be sure to wear thick gardening gloves, when picking the flowers from the gorse, as the needles are big.

The plant doesn’t want its flowers picked, hence the spikes. When you go gorse-picking, wear thick clothes and wellies, too.

This is not for the fainthearted and you don’t want to be impaled many times over, Game of Thrones-style.

Gorse Wine

Special equipment

You will need a demi-john, with an airlock, for this to work

Ingredients

• 2 litres in volume of gorse flowers; the freshest-looking flowers work the best 
• 1kg sugar 
• 15g yeast (you can use white wine yeast, €1.95 from thehomebrewcompany.ie 
• 2 lemons 
• 4 litres water

Bring the water to the boil and add the flowers. Cook them on a simmer for fifteen minutes.

Add the sugar and give it a good stir to dissolve it.

Add in the juice and rind of the lemons and leave it to cool to about body temperature.

Stir in the yeast and pour the mix into a large container, like a food-grade plastic bucket.

Leave it aside, covered with a cloth for a couple of days, until you start to see some fizzy activity when you give the bucket a little shake.

Strain the mix and decant it into your demi-john.

Fix on the airlock and keep it in a temperature of 20-22C.

Leave it aside, covered with a cloth for a couple of days, until you start to see some fizzy activity and when the liquid has turned clear.

This can take some time. You can now bottle and drink the wine.

Nettle Beer

Nettle wine is easy and quick to make and makes a refreshing summer drink.

Not as well-known for a beery brew is our old pal the stinging nettle.

Nettles are having their ‘field day’ right now and are there for the foraging and for making into so many amazing things, from pesto to risotto and, less obviously, beer.

Nettle beer is a must for anyone who hasn’t ventured into the world of fermented drinks, as nettles are so easy to come by. Always pick only the fresh young tops and ideally get them away from busy roads.

Wear very thick gloves and, if you do get stung, just see it as free acupuncture and rub a dock leaf on it. It does work. While the sting is tough, nettles are otherwise very easy to pick.

Special equipment

You will need clip-top bottles, ideally recycled beer bottles, like Grolsch.

Sterilise them by washing them well and putting them in the oven for 10 minutes at 160C or put them through the dishwasher, upside down, without a tablet in the machine.

Ingredients

• Nettle stalks and leaves; about a large shopping bag full 
• 1kg sugar 
• 25g cream of tartar (can be found in supermarkets in the baking section) 
• 5 litres water 
• 15g yeast 

Boil up the nettles in water for 15 minutes; don’t be alarmed as the water will be black.

Add the sugar and cream of tartar and stir to dissolve. Take it off the heat.

When the mixture has cooled down to body temperature, stir in the yeast and then let it cool fully.

You can now bottle your beer into sterilised bottles, and enjoy it within a few days.

It’s very hard to say how much alcohol is in nettle beer, due to the short fermentation time, but the longer you leave it, the more the alcohol will develop.

Ideally, drink this beer young, as the flavour of an older brew can be a bit, well, stinky.