Recent content by akchris

So I ended up using too much spruce. Hoping the taste will mellow with age. the beer is good, but next time half the spruce

Stems and all. Tried to use tips with smaller stems.

Unfortunately birch sap and new growth spruce tips are on a different timeline. I had to use old growth, so I cut some from the smallest trees I had and only used about an inch off the end. They were the softest greenest smelling with the smallest branch. We'll see what happens...

This stuff is going strong. My laundry room smells like freshly cut spruce trees, but it still has that great fermenting beer aroma. :cross:

Birch trees my young Jedi...Birch trees... Up here in alaska you can't look outside without seeing a few thousand, and my buddy Fred being ever the resourceful one decided to tap some (50.) You can buy a little spout that you hammer into the tree and hang a bucket from to collect the sap...

I wasn't so much concerened with starches in the sap, I was more concerened with unfermentable sugars in the sap and syrup. Thinking I should have mashed a little lower to make up for it with the grain conversion....If that makes any sense.:confused:

The hydro sample had a good spruce flavor to it, I just didn't want to overpower the brew with the stuff.

Thats what I was hoping for, I'm also hoping that the syrup ferments out most of the way, or I may have mashed too high.

Yup, It tastes like a light sugar water, and is about the same consistency.

So after a dozen or so all grain batches with excellent results, I dove into the unknown again. I have been consistently brewing my own recipes with success...and then I get a phone call from my buddy Fred. Fred says "Hey Iv'e been tapping birch trees on my property and I have a spare 10...

Hydro sample of an all grain birch sap, spruce tip, cascade pale ale. :rockin:

Anything from midnight sun brewing:mug:

2010 SN Bigfoot, up next Deschutes Obsidian Stout

Greetings from Big Lake :mug:

Never thought of the iron, I put the original bag inside a big vacuum sealer bag once it's opened and just keep re-sealing it.