Chris,
Just interested in where you got your recipe from for this wine, can you post it when you get time please?
Allie
"Nettle Wine Recipe
1 bag nettles
1 gallon water
1.2 kg sugar
juice of one orange
juice of one lemon
1 heaped teaspoon wine yeast
sterilising solution (for cleaning equpment before use)
Instructions for nettle wine
At home I picked through the nettles again, removing bugs and bits of grass. Then the nettle tops went onto the stove in a large pot. I covered the nettles with about 4 pints of water and brought them to the boil. After 15 minutes gentle simmering I turned off the heat and after allowing it to cool for about 20 minutes strained the now light green juice into a large fermentation bucket. I added another 8 pints of boiled water, 1.2kg of sugar and the juice of one lemon and one orange. I stirred till the sugar was disolved, covered the bucket and left it to cool.
Later that day once the mixture had reached approximately blood temperature I checked the specific gravity (1080) which means that if all the sugar turns to alcohol the wine will be approximately 9%-12% alcohol.
I added a heaped teaspoon of wine yeast and stirred it in. I then stood the bucket on some insulating layers of newspaper and wrapped a blanket around it.
The next day the mix was beginning to bubble and continued to do so vigourously for 3 days. At this point I siphoned off the juice into a sterilized demijohn and topped it with a airlock.
Three weeks later a sludge had settled in the bottom of the demijohn, so siphoned to wine (can I call it wine yet?) to a clean demijohn and left it another 6 weeks. I was absolutely certain that the fermentation had finished so I bottled it and left the bottles on the shelf in the cupboard under the stairs.
2 weeks later I was curious and cracked open a bottle. As there was no sweetness left, I added two tablespoonfuls to the wine and drank a glass.
I liked it and drank the whole bottle. Was gently intoxicated and didn't have a hangover the next morning, so I class nettle wine as a total success."
I found that recipe on gardenspace.newarchaeology . com