spruce beer

Been enjoying Alaskan Amber's winter ale with spruce tips. It's damned tasty! Come springtime, I think I'm going to be harvesting some trees and making up some spruce beer. Anyone have any experience with spruce tips?

No. But there's a long thread about it here:

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

Ya know, I read that when it was new. Haven't read it since though. heh

Has anyone else been enjoying this beer as much as I have been?

Spruce tips...no. Spruce extract? BE CAREFUL! That stuff is potent. Start with about 1/8 the recommended amount if you decide to use the extract.

I'm surrounded by sitka spruce here in the PNW. Why would I want to use extract?

have not made a beer with spruce tips but have been down the road you are partially and want to go further.

I wish I still lived in Seattle as I would be able to pursue this a lot easier, I already have 2 winter beers going for next winter and another planned, why not throw in a 4th

I will be watching this to see how this goes.

P.S. Please don't be suprised if I PM you in the spring for a envolope full of spruce tips

Color me jealous. Even with spruce tips, I'd go easy. You can always "dry spruce" later.

Yuri: I've wanted to try doing a prickly pear mead but can't find good ones up here. Maybe we could do a swap sometime.

Argh... echoing those sentiments on the extract. The bottle I purchased said one teaspoon per gallon, and I cut that in half since I don't like an overly spiced / flavored beer.

I just racked to my secondary this morning, and the spruce flavor is very strong. Vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, and whole cloves not coming through at all. Gravity is still around 1.015 so I'm hoping some aging and a little more scrubbing will take the edge off. Be carefull indeed! 1 or 1.5 tsp per 5 gallon seems plenty... I'm a little upset the extract manufacturer would push that kind of usage. Time will tell...

Living in the PNW, I won't be using the extract. I can find spruce tips outside my door when the time comes!

Went out last night and they had the Alaskan Winter on tap. Damn that's tasty stuff!

I had a pint of Steamwork's Brewery's Spruce Goose beer tonight. Very tasty stuff with a subtle sweet flavor and a hint of pine in the aftertaste.

I had a bottle of Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve last night which promised "a hoppy spruce finish," and I gotta say I was totally disappointed. I got the hoppy (way too much Chinook there, buddy!), but no spruce at all that I could detect. Or perhaps the Chinook and the spruce are SO complimentary that I can't tell the difference, but...

khiddy said:

I had a bottle of Rogue's Santa's Private Reserve last night which promised "a hoppy spruce finish," and I gotta say I was totally disappointed. I got the hoppy (way too much Chinook there, buddy!), but no spruce at all that I could detect. Or perhaps the Chinook and the spruce are SO complimentary that I can't tell the difference, but...

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Try Alaskan's. You can definitely taste the spruce, but it's not overpowering.