Beer with a sting

May 9 2008 by Alastair Gilmour, The Journal

GORDON Sumner, The Entertainer and urtica dioica deserve some respect. Next week is National Be Nice To Nettles Week, a Sting-orientated love-in which coincidentally heralds the return of a seasonal ale affiliated to the former Police singer, the theme tune to a 1973 movie and the Latin name of the plant spurned by many for its antisocial activities.

High House Farm Brewery has had so many enquiries for its occasional Nettle Beer that this season’s first brew was virtually pre-sold before gloves and secateurs began hunting and gathering. A smallish batch of seven barrels (252 gallons) is fermenting in the Grade II-listed brewhouse near Matfen in Northumberland to be ready for the pub trade during the week commencing May 19, right in the middle of the Be Nice... period of May 14-25, a curious “week” containing 12 days.

“Our Nettle Beer (4.5% alcohol by volume) is adapted from a 14th Century recipe,” says Sally Urwin, whose husband Steven started the brewery as an agricultural diversification plan following the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001.

“We filled a 25-kilo sized bag from one of our fields. It has some ginger and comfrey in it as well which helps the nettle flavour come through.”

Seven years ago Steven came to the conclusion that a dependence on sheep and cattle may not sustain livelihoods over an extended period of quarantine and restrictions, so he upgraded his home-brewing skills to professional status by studying on a start-up brewing course at Brewlab, the Sunderland University brewing sciences arm. A wall of industry awards later, the family firm employs two dozen local people in various capacities in the brewery and its admirable visitor centre.

High House Nettle Beer has a fresh, grassy flavour which quickly outsmarts its slightly musty aroma. It’s delightfully light ruby-red in colour – and no trace of green whatsoever – with earthy vegetational characteristics developing through a lingering aftertaste. Goldings hops lend lemon and cedar aromas, while the ginger content forms a barely-perceptible backdrop.

“People remembered the beer from last year but couldn’t get it,” says brewer Michael Harker, a former part-time cask-cleaner who has absorbed brewing skills by observing and studying under nationally-recognised consultant David Smith from York Brewery.

“They didn’t want to miss out this time. We’ll probably do another brew mid-June then possibly again before the end of the summer, but we’re pretty much dependent on the availability of the nettles. Last year it was nearly the end of May before they were ready, but this year there’s been a lot of rain for them.

“We chop them up small to release the flavours, rinse them and steep them then add them to the beer as we would an aroma hop, but we can only do small batches at a time. They’re best used the same day or just picked the evening before.”

Pubs with their orders already lodged include The Cumberland Arms, The Bridge and the Crown Posada in Newcastle; The Angel in Corbridge; the Black Horse, Beamish; the Red Lion at North Bitchburn in County Durham; Ryhope Catholic Club, the Wetherspoons chain and pubs around Matfen, with some deliveries heading into the Borders.

Michael says: “We’re doing the bar on the Jazz Train from Newcastle to Carlisle and back on May 31 and June 28 and I’m tempted to take the nettle beer there – if there’s any left.”

Nettle is a potent source of minerals, vitamins, amino acids and protein “building blocks” so the early-growing dark green plant has always been thought of as a spring tonic and an important part of traditional diets. Nettle beer was so common in East Anglia it was considered a primary medicinal source. Its stalk is extremely fibrous and strong, traditionally made into rope and woven into fishing nets, it makes a durable paper and also produces a very fine cloth when woven – though reports of First World War German troops wearing nettle-based uniforms may have been propaganda. According to several sources, cows fed on a diet of nettles produce better milk, chickens eating them lay more eggs and horses develop sleeker coats if they are added to their feed.

Medicinally, nettle possesses astringent, tonic, antiseptic, depurative, homeostatic and diuretic properties. It has been used in traditional botanical medicine for diarrhoea, dysentery, scurvy, haemorrhages, kidney stones, liver conditions, bowel problems, skin diseases such as eczema, and rheumatics.

As for the other High House Nettle Beer ingredients, ginger “quickens” the blood and stimulates peripheral circulation. Dutch researchers have found it similar to aspirin in preventing blood from clotting; it is believed to have aphrodisiac qualities and also relieves flatulence, two facts that may or may not be related. Comfrey has antidepressant and anti-inflammatory values.

Yet another Sting is American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling champ Steve James Borden. Nettle beer handpulls should share his uninterrupted experience.