Sitka spruce

Late picking this year, but the tips near the glacier were still early enough to be worth while. The going rate in Juneau, AK is half of a small brown grocery bag loosely packed for 10gal. I have only used them once before and did not use nearly that much, but I also didn't get much by way of flavor out of them either. Anyone else have experience with Sitka spruce tips? I picked enough to do three 5 gallon test batches (at the going rate), it's going to have to wait a while though. Defending my M.S. in Fisheries in 10 days, then oRff to the Arctic Circle and the Bering Sea for 2 months. They will live in my freezer till then.

I've never used Sitka spruce, but I have used Engleman's before. I was kind of disappointed with the results as I couldn't find much spruce flavor or aroma. I think I was apprehensive to use too much.

Congrats on the MS in fisheries. I work as a fisheries biologist in Washington.

I've been contemplating that here in Fairbanks as well, so I'm curious for any results/responses you get. I have access to plenty of both white and black spruce, though I'm leaning towards using white spruce if possible. Any indications of flavor differences?

Well, like I said I don't have really any experience with it. I am just going to find out the old fashioned way. Like I said, I picked enough to do probably three 5gal batches. The first one I am going to load the crap out of with a fairly clean base beer, then adjust from there. A couple of years ago I tried a homebrew (spruce tip black ipa) and it was fantastic, once I get the amount dialed in I can play with other styles. I am going to treat them like a aroma hop addition and toss them into the boil about 10m.

Thanks Tasty, I'm so ready for this to be done, but not really looking forward to getting up and presenting my research to everyone.

Are you planning on using them wet or drying them?

I'm just down the coast (relatively) from Juneau in Prince Rupert, BC.

I brewed a Blonde Ale with Sitka Spruce tips in it last weekend. I went a little more scientific than 'half a paper bag' and used 10 oz in a5 gal batch. I used 5 oz at 60 to help bitter and then 5 oz at 10 mins. I used centennial to bitter at about 20 ibus and tossed in some amarillo at 20 min too.

I'm just waiting for it to drop a couple more pts before kegging it but I look forward to tasting it.

Congrats on the MS. That is great news for you.

Hey ak_hop, I knew I wasn't going to have time to use them right away so I washed, vacuum packed and froze them. So, wet when I do get to it. One thing I have figured out is to remove the brown caps as you pick them or at least before you freeze them. Last year I froze them with the caps on and it was a huge pain in the ass to flush them out after thawing.

I live down in Washington State (BC's Mexico) and I've successfully used frozen spruce tips before.

I say, the more the merrier. Use tons. While pairing it with "piny" hops makes a lot of sense, the best results I ever had was with lots of Amarillo in a pale ale.

TacoGuthrie said:

I'm just down the coast (relatively) from Juneau in Prince Rupert, BC.

I brewed a Blonde Ale with Sitka Spruce tips in it last weekend. I went a little more scientific than 'half a paper bag' and used 10 oz in a5 gal batch. I used 5 oz at 60 to help bitter and then 5 oz at 10 mins. I used centennial to bitter at about 20 ibus and tossed in some amarillo at 20 min too.

I'm just waiting for it to drop a couple more pts before kegging it but I look forward to tasting it.

Congrats on the MS. That is great news for you.

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So I live here in Juneau and picked about a pound or so from Eagle Beach the other weekend. I vacuum sealed them in 2, 5 oz bags so I'll have plenty this winter if anyone else is looking for some. I'm planning on making an Irish Red Ale this weekend so I'm looking at min 50 dropping about 5 oz; that's it?

Thanks,

-Rob-

alexdagrate said:

I live down in Washington State (BC's Mexico) and I've successfully used frozen spruce tips before.

I say, the more the merrier. Use tons. While pairing it with "piny" hops makes a lot of sense, the best results I ever had was with lots of Amarillo in a pale ale.

Click to expand...

The Blonde Ale I just made had Amarillo in it. I figured i'd get 'piny' flavour from the spruce tips and wanted citrus to round it out.

As far as I know, Mexico is BC's Mexico!

Does anyone have any dry-sprucing tips? Amounts? Sanitation?

akenthusiast said:

Hey ak_hop, I knew I wasn't going to have time to use them right away so I washed, vacuum packed and froze them. So, wet when I do get to it. One thing I have figured out is to remove the brown caps as you pick them or at least before you freeze them. Last year I froze them with the caps on and it was a huge pain in the ass to flush them out after thawing.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll have to give this a try sometime soon.