Blonde Ale w/ Spruce tips

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TacoGuthrie

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I want to make a beer with spruce tips but most of the recipes i've seen are for Brown ales or barley wines. Because spruce tips pop in the late spring around here i want to make a lighter beer. Both in colour and body.

So here goes. Critique away...


Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 7.37 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.24 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal
Bottling Volume: 5.10 gal
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 2.8 SRM
Estimated IBU: 22.6 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 1 90.0 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.0 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.0 %

5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 60.0 mins) Herb 4 -
0.50 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 15.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 7.5 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 1.0 mins) Herb 8 -

1.0 pkg Thames Valley Ale (Wyeast Labs #1275) [1 Yeast 9 -


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Mash In Add 3.13 gal of water at 161.4 F 150.0 F 60 min

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 5.69gal) of 168.0 F water
Notes:
------
 
Bumping for interest. I have a HUGE spruce tree in my yard, so I'd love to try this (ever since drinking Alaskan Winter Ale, of course). One of my primary questions is what kind of spruce. The tree in my yard is Blue Spruce but I live in Colorado so it wouldn't be too hard to track down any other spruce.


As far as the grain bill on yours I'd think a little wheat would be nice (either white or flaked wheat), but then again I'm a little bit obsessed with Hefe's and Wits, so take that with a grain of salt.
Have you considered Simcoe for the hops? They have a very distinct pine flavor to them that might compliment the beer nicely.
 
I'm brewing this tomorrow morning. I had to make a couple of changes to the recipe, notably the yeast because I'm not feeling the starter i made with 1275.

I changed the hops too and then I came in to see your post Budz. I had considered Simcoe. In the end I went with Centennial and Amarillo. The thinking is I'll get some nice grapefruit out of those and enough piney/sprucey out of the spruce tips and it should be a winning combination!

I hear you on the wheat but I usually get the body and head retention I want out of 5% carapils. This is the first time i've used Pilsner as my base grain. I have had a whole sack of it lying around for almost a year. I had to do something with it.

I live on the North Coast of British Columbia so we've got Sitka Spruces around here. From everything I've researched on here all kinds of Spruce have been used.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
9 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 1 90.0 %
8.0 oz Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 5.0 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.0 %

0.50 oz Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 75.0 min Hop 4 18.5 IBUs
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 60.0 mins) Herb 5 -
0.50 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 6 11.6 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 7 -
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 1.0 mins) Herb 8 -

1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast 9 -
 
That's a good call on the hops, using simcoe might actually get it too piney.

What led you to adding the spruce at 60minutes? Most spruce recipes I've seen call for them around 15 minutes or so to get more of an aromatic effect from them. I like that you have an addition at both ends of the boil.

Let me know how it smells and tastes before fermentation today, I'm very curious to try this myself.
 
Most recipes do seem to call for additions at 15 mins. Notably Bier Muncher's recipe in his Spruce tips are poppin do i dare thread.

Later in that thread i read a few posts about adding the spruce at 60. Here's one of those:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/spruce-tips-popping-do-i-dare-60942/index12.html#post3008123

It seemed to make a lot of sense. Now i didn't pepper hops in continuously after that addition so I'm going out on my own here.

I just finished the boil. It's going through the chiller now. OG looks to be spot on around 1048-49. The wort tastes like wort - sweet. I get a tiny hint of Pacific Coastal Rainforest in there at the end but it's pretty faint. Same for smell but even less so.

I am going to consider and research dry hopping with some tips.
 
BudzAndSudz said:
Bumping for interest. I have a HUGE spruce tree in my yard,
.

budz,

Would you consider a spruce for homebrew trade? I was thinking of spruce in my gingerbread porter, but not to be found in the southeast.
 
I absolutely would! Message me a mailing address and how much you're interested in and I can send some out on Monday. Will you be doing this recipe or a different one? I'm very interested in seeing some other ideas for spruce
 
Constantly confused how this forum can have a thread that just dies in the middle of a discussion. Happens all the time, so I guess this is a bump.
 
I hope you guys sort out your trade.

In the meantime I kegged my Blonde Ale after 10 days. I didn't get a ton of spruce scent or flavour out of the sample. I might dry-spruce in a bit.
 
Taco,

If you did 5 Oz for 60 and 5 oz for 1 min and didn't get much flavor or aroma, you think the problem was quantity or timing? Do you think spruce works more like hops in terms of timing?

I am going for a touch of flavor so based on your results, I'm thinking 10oz at 30 min. Thoughts?
 
sfrisby, i will be drinking the keg in acouple days so can report more then.

in the meantime i would think that it wuld be better to pile on the late spruce additions. i was gonna put in my 5 oz at flameout but got scared of sanitation so went at 10.

when i taste it i'll see how much spruce.
 
Hi all,

I just found this thread by search and I'm thrilled it's only a few days old.

Taco,
I'm curious if you've tapped that keg yet. I had about 2lbs. of tips shipped by family in Oregon (not many spruces in Tucson) and have them in my freezer, and I'm excited to get going. Of course it is 105 deg here so I also want a lighter ale. I was considering a spruce pale ale.
 
How did this turn out for you guys? I made a spruce IPA recently and I actually found less than 7 oz. of spruce tips to be a little bit too much. It's good, but kind of on the border...

I cut them a couple of hours before brewing and did about a 50/50 split weight wise between 15 minutes and 5 minutes.
 
Hey guys I tried some of this last night. Its still a little green and definitely needs clearing time but it was a good first taste.

I wouldn't say the spruce was overpowering at all. There is a light hint of it on the nose and it gives the beer a real 'crisp' taste. It is far away from being too sprucey though. I was worried it would be like licking a tree.

I've been thinking about it and there are quite few factors involved with the spruce. Depending on the age of the spruce tip i bet there is a flavour variance. Some of the younger ones are tight and unopened but then others have opened up. I tried to collect younger ones. I definitely only picked ones that had brown tips had off too.

Another factor could be weight and water. I'm guessing everyone is using fresh or wet tips? I went straight from picking them into a bucket then into the brew. I also remember it was raining when i picked them so they were pretty soaked.

Just some thoughts.
 

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