Anyone ever brewed with pine needles?

[tacks]

Hi all, excited that summer is here and looking to make a few brews before school starts back up. I ran across a cool thread about simple syrup made with pine needles, and I was thinking about trying it out for a test batch, either using just the pine needles as an adjunct added to primary (I only use secondary with really big beers), or added during the normal hop schedule. I was wondering if anyone had ever done this and what the outcome may have been. The link below will take you to the instructable I was referencing about the pine syrup if you are interested.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pine-Tip-Simple-Syrup/

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I just plucked 13oz of fir tips. They have a nice lemongrass and slight resinous aroma. I'm planning on using them with either millenium or northern brewer with a simple APA malt bill to make a summer session ale. I have never used them so I can't help! Fir != Pine != Spruce !! They are all different.

What kind of pine? Is it really pine? Does it have a papery, brown-ish sheath at the base of the needles? The needles should be in groups, with a few exceptions, of 2-5 needles.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I just clicked on your link... THAT IS NOT PINE! They call it douglas fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, which is wildly different than a pine tree. Pseudotsuga literally translates to "false hemlock" and tsuga is the genus for hemlock trees.

/end forestry rant. For now.

 

[bobeer]

I saw on a brewTV episode where they made satea (spelling?) It's like beer but it's not really beer. They used juniper branches as sort of a false-bottom in the mash tun. Maybe you can experiment in a coffee press or something.
I was curious a few years ago... I picked some juniper I had in the backyard and boiled it in pint of water for about 10 minutes then tasted the water. It had a nice twiggy bitterness to it. I think it would be cool to make a beer with slightly higher gravity then add some of the juniper water to it to bring it down to the target gravity. Or you could do a mash with it too. You'd have to play around with the IBU's because from what I remember it would make the beer a little bit more bitter. I know rouge's juniper pale ale is pretty darn good!

 

[Arrheinous]

AFAIK from spruce tips: something like 5 pounds spread over 30 - 10 minute additions will give you a good citrus flavor rather than a piney one.

 

[Paradigm]

Back when I was in highschool I worked as a dishwasher at the Moat in Conway, NH. The brewer there experimented with pine needles a lot, I remember because I helped him a lot on slow days.

 

[boganll]

I brewed a beer with pine needles a few years ago after reading about beer being brewed in the scottish highlands prior to widespread use of hops. They would use pine and spruce sprigs for flavor and preservation and seafarers would drink it to prevent scurvy and ill health. Today theres a scottish brewery called Williams Brothers Brewing Company that brews a beer akin to these old pine beers with fresh pine and spruce shoots. I live in the pineywoods of southeast Texas and had my own go with our pine needles down here. It was a scotch ale and I used the needles in the boil and flameout for aroma and flavor. If I decide to revisit it someday it'll definitely need a lot more needles than what I used, which was about a pound.

 

[solbes]

I made a winter warmer (lightly spiced) last August. Sad I only have about 8 left.

But we harvested the freshly sprouted tips from white spruce. They were a very light green and very soft. So I think timing is critical. I've heard its an absolute resin bomb if you take older growth, so I'd be cautious there. They sat in a bag in the freezer till brew day.

We did 4 oz at 10 minutes and 3 oz at flameout (within nylon paint strainer bag). I thought it gave lots of citrus and piney flavor/aroma. I would probably go 2/3 or 1/2 the amount next time. Some people REALLY like some piney flavor up above. 5 lbs?!? Whoa man.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I made a winter warmer (lightly spiced) last August. Sad I only have about 8 left.

But we harvested the freshly sprouted tips from white spruce. They were a very light green and very soft. So I think timing is critical. I've heard its an absolute resin bomb if you take older growth, so I'd be cautious there. They sat in a bag in the freezer till brew day.

We did 4 oz at 10 minutes and 3 oz at flameout (within nylon paint strainer bag). I thought it gave lots of citrus and piney flavor/aroma. I would probably go 2/3 or 1/2 the amount next time. Some people REALLY like some piney flavor up above. 5 lbs?!? Whoa man.

Do you have the recipe?

 

[solbes]

Do you have the recipe?

Surely, here it is. Spruced Winter Warmer

14 lbs Pale malt
4 oz chocolate malt
4 oz C40
4 oz C80
4 oz Special B

Chinook, 1 oz FWH, 1 oz @ 10 minute
4 oz spuce tips @ 10 min, 3 oz spruce tips @ flameout (in bag) (Reduce amounts if desired)
0.5 tsp cinammon, 0.25 tsp nutmeg, 0.25 tsp whole clove @ 10 min

1.062 OG, 1.013 FG, 6.7%, 38 IBU (est)
Mash 154 for 60 min
Fermented with cultured Bells yeast @ 64-67 F

I brewed in late August. Cracked the first bottle @ Thanksgiving. Spruce was pretty strong. Faded just a tiny bit by Christmas and then melded by Feb/March.