Spruce Tips are Popping...Do I Dare???

thanks guys. after looking at some more pictures, i believe it could be, duh, redwood. i'll collect some more tips and get some better daytime pictures

ddrrseio said:

thanks guys. after looking at some more pictures, i believe it could be, duh, redwood. i'll collect some more tips and get some better daytime pictures

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That could certainly be the case, Redwood looks very similar to what you picked.

wyzazz said:

That could certainly be the case, Redwood looks very similar to what you picked.

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Any idea if redwood tips could be used?

JLem said:

Any idea if redwood tips could be used?

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redwood does not have even a little of the aroma that a spruce does. i was a tree trimmer for a few years out here in CA and have smelled tons of redwood being sawn down or trimmed.

ddrrseio said:

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those are redwood tips. there are lots of spruce in the bay area, look in your neighborhood and i bet you will find some. they have an almost blue/green hue and the needles are longer and pointier than the redwood needle.

i've been looking! i bike close to 100 miles/week and much of it unique. if you could point me to a particular park or anything that would be awesome.

i even contacted a nursery in santa rosa and asked if i could pay to collect clippings and they turned me down.

got one!

i finally spotted this in a neighborhood on the way to, of all places, the homebrew store. i returned on the way home with my grain, chinook hops, yeast and soon 13oz of spruce tips all crammed into a backpack.

the lady living there was incredibly nice and seemed excited when i explained my purpose. she said she was planning to do her first homebrew soon, too! someone had gotten her a kit and she hadn't begun - i hope this inspires her to start.

thanks everyone for your IDing help and encouragement. i just spent the last several hours making 12 oz teas replicating mashing and added agave nectar to hit the planned OG. i would peel a small taste off and then boil the rest with another scaled ounce of tips, correcting the eventual gravity before sampling. my very primitive results suggest that, yes, a structured "hopping" schedule yielded the most interesting and most pleasant flavor. the harsh pine flavors melted and sit on top of the malt very, very well.

this should be a good one!

Pardon me for reviving an old thread, but reading 13 pages of this has gotten me interested in making a spruce beer. I've been wanting to make an old ale and innoculate it with brett in secondary. I'm thinking spruce tips might work well with this beer. I sketched out a rough recipe for this. I want to know what you guys think and if spruce tips would work for this.

5.5 gallons

Marris Otter - 80%
Flaked Barley - 6%
Crystal 40 - 6%
Special B - 3%
Brown malt - 5%

1.5 oz Fuggles at 90M
6 oz Spruce tips at 30M

OG would be about 1.075. IBU without the spruce tips would be about 20.

Those of you who used only spruce/pine/etc. and NO hops, have you had any shelf life issues with the finished beer?

I have two giant eastern hemlocks in my yard. I haven't been able to taste the new tips yet, but the older needles are GREAT! Earthy, slightly bitter, slightly citrusy, and a touch of pine. I want to use nothing but needles in a small batch, but I'm unsure of the preservative effect.

Several sites do claim it has antiseptic properties, so maybe a small test SMaSH is in order.

I just noticed that all the evergreens in my front yard have started showing their tips. I believe my big tree is a spruce of some sort (have to double-check, of course), and if it is, I'm going to brew this Spruce Pale Ale this weekend:

3 Gallons:

5lb 2-row
1lb Munich
.5lb C40

.25oz Magnum@60
3oz Spruce Tips@15
.5oz Cascade@10
.25oz Cascade@0

S04 or US-05.

I plan on freezing a bunch of the tips for use in a followup batch if I like the results.

I wouldn't freeze them, just put a bunch in some vodka. Pine flavored vodka is pretty good alone or you can flavor a fermentor or keg to taste.

Just so everyone knows, don't try using older growth. My test batch was horribly tannic and resiny even though there is no tannic or resin taste when eating the stuff.

The new tips are popping on my trees and they have a sharper and grassier bitterness than the older stuff, but overall the same flavor. I think I might just have yucky tasting trees, lol.

500g Sitka Spruce tips added to 6-gal pale ale at flameout. Will use a hop bag next time as they soak up a ton of liquid and add all sorts of needles to the trub, some of which passed into my fermenter. I brewed a batch last year with spruce tips added at 30 minutes, but I think that was too much as they turned to mush and I could smell the spruce-ness boiling off.

I also did a quick dry-hopping experiment with the same dosing. The result was a distinct spruce aroma, but the flavor was overwhelmed by lingering Mountain Dew flavor from what I thought was a thoroughly cleaned pop bottle. Will try again.

I have made many different kinds of wine and would like to make one beer. We have a Christmas tree farm and I think it would be cool to make a spruce tip beer. Does anyone know any good recipes that are easy for a first timer? I would like to make a blond beer if that’s possible.

I bottled my Spruce Pale Ale today. In my sample off the siphon, I got a really nice bright spruce flavor that went well with the cascade hops. It was piney and citrusy, with nice malt flavor from the munich and sweetness from the crystal.

Can't wait to try it once it is chilled and carbonated.

...and the verdict is in: fantastic! I wish I had made 5 gallons of this stuff instead of 3. 1 oz of spruce tips per gallon at 10 minutes is just about perfect. It's present without being overwhelming, and marries nicely with the cascade hops. Easily the best pale ale I've made.

Too bad I have to wait another year to make more...

Sounds great! I've got my tips sprouting and ready to be picked. I tried something similar to you but used Centennial. I think I have to remove those hops so I can evaluate the contribution of just the tips. I couldn't pick 'em out and others didn't want to try the beer because they were afraid. 1oz/gallon @ 10min will be my guide, thanks! If I need finishing hops I can always dry hop the beer later.

OOH the choices to make by tomorrow morning... Thanks everybody for the last 14 pages and 4 some-od years past. Doing a porter recipe only gruit style. I have 5oz fresh(frozen) spruce tips and 2oz mugwort to pack into my somewhat light grain bill of 9# 2 row, 1.5# Brit chocolate. Any last minute advice is welcome. I'm torn between 5oz spruce at 60 min or 3oz at 60/ 2oz at 10. The mugwort will be an oz at 60 and another oz at 30. Mashing at 152, but maybe 154 would balance better in case the spruce will overwhelm.

Thanks guys.

I just added about 1 1/2 cups of spruce tips cut from my own tree to the mash. Held at 152 for an hour. Mashed out at 172. I may add a half cup more at 10 minutes. Spiced winter ale (all grain) kit from Northern Brewer. We'll see....

Came across the article and recipe (post below) which got me to read this thread. Excited to try both the following rather...rustic..recipe, as well as some of the more modern batches mentioned. Anyone every try this old school style?
This wintry, Puritan-style brew is based on a recipe from Directions for Cookery, in its Various Branches by Eliza Leslie, 1840. Brewed with real spruce branches, hops, dark maple syrup and no grain, it’s light, yeasty and dramatically different from modern beer.
Ingredients in the Spruce Beer Cocktail

http://liquor.com/recipes/spruce-beer/
http://liquor.com/articles/drink-like-a-pilgrim/

1 gallon Water
1 gallon Plastic bag full of spruce limbs (the tips and newer growth)
1 cup Dark maple syrup
.24 oz Hops (such as Willamette and Centennial)
1 packet Ale yeast
6 Raisins
5 Allspice berries, cracked (optional)
1 teaspoon Ground ginger (optional)
Boil water, hops and spices in a large pot for 20 minutes. Add the spruce limbs and boil for another 10 minutes. Strain the mixture through a mesh brew bag (if you have one) or a metal strainer. Let the liquid stand until it is warm.

Sanitize a gallon glass fermenter. Pour the warm spruce liquid into the jug. Add the yeast and the sugar. Cork the jug with a rubber stopper and an airlock. Allow it to ferment for 2 to 4 days, or until it stops bubbling.

Sanitize your bottles, Put three raisins in the bottom of each bottle and fill with the liquid. (The original recipe claims that the raisins stop the fermentation process, but it’s mistaken; they’re to give the yeast one last meal, which carbonates the beverage once it’s bottled.)

Allow to sit another two days. Enjoy!

It's spruce tip time again and I am curious if anyone has any brews planned. I will be doing a Sitka Spruce pale ale again and perhaps may try an ester-producing yeast and fruitier hops this time to complement the floral notes of Sitka Spruce tips.

Anyone else have a spruce brew planned?

ten80 said:

It's spruce tip time again and I am curious if anyone has any brews planned. I will be doing a Sitka Spruce pale ale again and perhaps may try an ester-producing yeast and fruitier hops this time to complement the floral notes of Sitka Spruce tips.

Anyone else have a spruce brew planned?

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I just did one for my club's "Iron Brewer" competition. Challenge was to brew using spruce tips and pine nuts. I went for a very light bodied beer with no highly flavorful malts so that the roasted pine nuts could be tasted. Beer has a very smooth refreshing spruce taste, but not sure I can taste the pine nuts. Here's a screen cap of the recipe:



Judging is Friday, 5/15/15, wish me luck.

Brew on

I have a spruce tip beer I do for the holidays each year. Always enjoy it.

doug, do you find that adding spruce tips at the beginning of the boil is worthwhile? I didn't find that it added much flavor.

What type of spruce did you collect your tips from?

Also, your recipe looks great, except that I think that pine nuts taste like moldy dirt

ten80 said:

doug, do you find that adding spruce tips at the beginning of the boil is worthwhile? I didn't find that it added much flavor.

What type of spruce did you collect your tips from?

Also, your recipe looks great, except that I think that pine nuts taste like moldy dirt

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I haven't experimented with additions at different times. I did some reading around HBT, and the consensus seemed to be that spruce works kind of the opposite of hops. Long boils give smoother flavor, and late additions provide more bitterness. I couldn't find any recipes with tasting notes, and I only had one shot at making this, so had to commit to something.

I don't know the spruce variety. I was handed a baggie with 8 oz of spruce tips that I could choose to use however I wanted in the beer.

The pine nuts were required by the competition rules. Iron Brewer is patterned after the Food Channel show "Iron Chef." Competitors are given two unusual ingredients which they must incorporate into something tasty. And, the two target ingredients should be evident in the final product. I'm just glad I wasn't part of the previous round, when the ingredients were fruit cocktail (yes the kind from a can) and Froot Loops. A lot of those batches ended up in waste treatment plants without the benefit of kidney filtering first.

I roasted the pine nuts, so at least they should have a "roasty, moldy dirt" taste. One of the reasons for roasting was to develop more flavor, but the other was to try to extract some of the oils from the nuts. Roasting was done with a couple of layers of paper towels under and over the nuts. I also blotted the nuts with the paper towels after roasting, while still warm. Didn't get nearly as much oil as I expected. Cooled nuts went into a food processor and ground into a coarse pesto. The pesto was included with the grains during mashing.

I chose low flavor profile malts and a small charge of a neutral bittering hop to hopefully not cover up the flavor of the pine nuts. The Carapils is intended to counteract the head killing properties of the pine nut oils. I'll see how well that worked when we taste the carbed up brew tomorrow. I also took great care when racking to the keg, not to draw from the trub or surface to try to avoid transferring any nut oils to the keg.

The roasted nuts had a color like a C60 or C80 barley, but added almost no color to the finished beer. It's the lighted colored beer I've ever made.

As I said, the beer has a pleasant, smooth spruce taste that is not overpowering, but definitely spruce. I'm not sure I can even taste the pine nuts (which could cost me in the Iron Brewer judging), but then I don't have the most refined palate. Have to see if any of our BJCP guys can pick it out.

Brew on

Last year about this time I brewed a fir-tip maibock. A fairly straightforward maibock recipe with 8 oz fresh-picked fir tips added at 60 min. Strong fruity, slightly piney flavor. It won it's category (spice/herb/veg) at a fairly large comp a few weeks back.

So for those still on the fence, go for it!

Years ago,early in my beer brewing career, a friend and myself made a spruce beer. Never forget it. It was like drinking a juiced 2 X 4....

Spruce tips need to be very young and soft for use in brewing. If they are getting even a little bit stiff, their flavor will have shifted from the nicely citrusy flavor to the piney, sprucey flavor and aroma. If you are getting 2x4, you picked the tips way too late. Always taste the tips to determine if they have the flavor you want. The young ones are citrusy.

I've done one with wyeast scottish ale, pale and lightly hopped with fuggle (maybe 10-15 IBUs). Thought the fruitiness of the yeast worked well. Added tips at 60, 15 and flameout. Don't remember how much I used (maybe 1-2 ounces per gallon?). There was a BYO article that I can't find for the life of me now that had the same or similar boiling schedule.

Overall I was happy with the spruce flavor. I'll go bigger next time and maybe do a british yeast.

How about making a spruce tip tea and adding it? Add a small amount to a beer that is of similar style, extrapolate the measurements for a 5 gal batch, snickty snoi.

Well, I've got 10 blue spruce in my back yard and the tips are coming on now. I've been trying to decide what style to make with them. I found a recipe over on Michael Tonsmeire's blog for a spruce grapefruit beer that sounds interesting. tasting notes: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2015_01_01_archive.html

recipe: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2015/01/spruce-grapefruit-india-pale-gruit.html

Because of the weather I am leaning towards a simple pale ale style and the grapefruit addition sounds delicious. Now I just have to figure out how much spruce to use. I read earlier in this thread around 1 oz. per gallon was a good dosing rate so I'll probably start there.

Well I wasn't anointed "Iron Brewer," but my beer was well received (several folks thought I should have won.) Beer was crystal clear and one of the lightest colored beers I have ever seen. Head retention was better than I expected. I'm quite happy with how it came out. Will make a great hot weather lawnmower beer. I think I will brew this again (Edit: but without the pine nuts. They didn't add anything.)

Brew on

Nice work Doug, I'm glad your beer didn't end up tasting like moldy dirt.

gwaugh, I think that you are on the right track; spruce tips are more of a flavor and aroma addition rather than bittering.

I used 500 grams of Sitka Spruce tips at flameout for my pale ale (5.5 gallons) and the level of flavor was about right. I believe I used magnum or similar hops for a clean bittering. Obviously, the amount of spruce tips to add will vary based on the species of spruce. Making a tea with a known weight of tips may give a good idea of the flavor contribution.

I was hoping to do a spruce tip amber. I would prefer not to brew it until the fall though. Sounds like seasonally it should occur sooner than later or perhaps get them now and freeze them? Does anyone know whether the spruce notes will be lost if I brew it sooner than later. I was hoping to take it on a man-cation in the fall steelhead fishing but..... Now I may have a dilemma.

Found my old recipe. I used 3 oz per gallon and it was far from overwhelming though certainly present. 1/3 at 60 and 2/3 at 15. I'm going bigger this year and switching up my times. I see people warn about my levels being too much but I'm beginning to think either they are incredibly sensitive to the taste or using tips that are too developed and it's getting too piney.

Mine was a light pale colored ale with Scottish yeast. Lighty hopped with fuggle. Not much malt to speak of. And I still thought the spruce level was not too much. Fruity

Reviving the thread for this year, anyone got a spruce beer going?
Brewed this one today. Thought about using more spruce additions and omitting the hops but I chickened out.

3 gal
1.056, 35 IBU

4.5 lb Maris otter
1 lbs White wheat
2 oz Acid malt
0.35 oz Centennial 60 min
4 oz Spruce tips 15 min
.65 oz Centennial 5 min
Wyeast 1217

Anyone ever tried making a beer with green cones? I have an eastern hemlock tree that is loaded with developing cones.....

Hi All,
Any recommendations for using liquid spruce essense instead of fresh spruce tips for BierMuncher's recipe??

I made a spruce beer last year. I THOUGHT it would make a good IPA and I THOUGHT it would pair nicely with the hops ,I also THOUGHT that the pine flavor would be something I wanted in a beer. Well turns out I THOUGHT WRONG! !! It was just plain nasty,tasted like pine-sol cleaner. Everybody that tried it said the same......Good luck,and I hope you have better results!