Chrisdon

Recipes 

Hey guys I am going to do a brew special for family that loves going up to our cabin in Redfeather Colorado. I decided to do a Red Ale and Call it "Redfeather Red Ale". Since our cabin is in the beautiful mountain scenery I also think it will be a great touch to replace the flavor hops with fresh spruce tree buds.

I picked up the ingredients and am planning on picking the spruce tomorrow. I have a few questions. Should I boil the spruce like the flavoring hops? (My local HBS and The Complete Joy of Homebrewing agree on this method to impart more of the flavor. Or should I put them in the secondary? Or both?

Here is the recipe:

Extract:
8 lbs. Light Malt Extract

Grains:
1lb. Crystal Malt 80L
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt 120L

Hops:
1&1/2 Centennial- 60 minutes
Replace 1oz of Cascade hops with the fresh spruce!

Yeast:
White Labs California Ale Yeast (Liquid)

Let me know what you think guys!

RiverCityBrewer

Recipes 

I would do it in the boil and taste it going into the primary and after primary. If you think it needs more after primary put some in the secondary. I'm interested in trying this out as well, so please report back on your findings.

Good luck!

Chrisdon

Recipes 

Will do man! I am pretty excited to see how it turns out. Most recipes I have seen with spruce are darker beers but I think the lighter body of the red may be good to let the spruce shine through a little more. Thanks for the help!

WhiskeySix

Recipes 

Redfeather Lakes! I am heading out there next month for a little fly fishing in Poudre Canyon. May be way too much water though. Might have to lake fish instead. My son lives in Ft Collins near Old Town. One of my very favorite places. Can't wait to get a buffalo burger and hang out at the Mish!

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Semper Fi
Mark

alexdagrate

Recipes 

I put 11 ounces of spruce tips in an IPA with columbus bittering hops and a mix of amarillo and cascade in the flavor and aroma stages.

I just cracked open the fermenter to add some centennial dry hops and BAM! I got hit with some powerful aroma. I can't wait to try this out!

I hope your brew does well.

Chrisdon

Recipes 

Ah yea man Redfeather has some great fishing! You should be able to find some rivers with some great bends where the water slows and those big trout just wait! Hope you have a good time!

Chrisdon

Recipes 

Oooh man that sounds like a damn good beer. Definitely let me know how that turns out! Thanks!

wyzazz

Recipes 

I did mine with Blue Spruce Tips at 60, 20 & Dry Sprucing for 7 days with NO HOPS. It's bottle conditioning now, we will see how it turns out!

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Chrisdon

Recipes 

That sounds very interesting! Let me know how it turns out!

shuf

Recipes 

8lbs of LME, that'll be a hell of a beer . There's a few good posts around on spruce beer, and I found this one helpful http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/spruce-tips-popping-do-i-dare-60942/.

I made the basic spruce beer from "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" over the winter, and couldn't get ahold of spruce tips so I used spruce extract from my lhbs. If your beer isn't sprucy enough, spruce extract might be an option but add to taste by very small amounts. The blue spruce in my yard just started to grow some tips, so I think I'll brew this again using real spruce tips now...