Spruce tip ale

[shrades]

Has anybody ever tried to make this for a holiday beer? Any good recipes?

 

[annasdadhockey]

Try this.........

 

[LeftyGorilla]

I'm drinking one right now. Got the basis of the recipe from Buhner's Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers. I used about a pint of spruce tips for a 3 gallon batch and boiled them for an hour in the wort.

It's very bitter. I did not add hops, but bittered with yarrow, artemesia and calamus. Also had juniper berries. It is very bitter. Most of my friends won't drink it. It has its own charms, though.

3.3 lbs LME
1 lb DME
.5 lb molasses
.5 lb honey
.5 lb maple syrup

Check out Sacred & Herbal Healing Beers for a variety of recipes. If I did it again, I would probably boil them for less time. Maybe last 15-30 minutes of the boil. Advise in the above thread is sound: go big or go home. I think brewing a very big spruce porter in the spring and letting it sit until the holidays would be the way to go.

 

[Handle]

I just put up our Christmas tree last weekend, and of course was greeted with that wonderful holiday smell that only a good Douglas or Frasier Fir provide.

That got me thinking: has anyone used these needles or clippings to make a holiday beer? I've heard spruce mentioned quite a bit on the forum.

 

[Walker]

BYO from November this year has a spruce recipe in it:

Fort George Brewing Spruce Budd Ale

Batch Size: 5.00 gal Assistant Brewer:
Boil Volume: 6.00 gal Boil Time: 60 min
Equipment: Brew Pot (6+gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (5 Gal)


Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
5 lbs 2.2 oz Extra Light Dry Extract (3.0 SRM) Dry Extract 65.1 %
2 lbs 12.0 oz Pilsen Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.0 SRM) Grain 34.9 %
0.50 tsp Yeast Nutrient (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 0.0 min) Misc
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 60.0 min) Misc
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
1 Pkgs Pacific Ale (White Labs #WLP041) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.048 SG (1.030-1.110 SG) Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.015 SG (1.006-1.024 SG) Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Color: 3.6 SRM (5.0-50.0 SRM) Color [Color]
Bitterness: 0.0 IBU (5.0-70.0 IBU) Alpha Acid Units: 0.0 AAU
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 4.3 % (2.5-12.0 %) Actual Alcohol by Volume: 6.3 %
Actual Calories: 268 cal/pint

Steep specialty grains in 2gal @ 150F for 30 mins.

Can substitute WLP041 (Pacific Ale) with Wyeast 1332 (Northwest Ale)

 

[thenbagis]

If you bitter with ingredients besides hops, I'm guessing you should be even more careful about sanitation? I know hops have some antiseptic qualities.

What do you think? Is this splitting hairs...?

 

[Walker]

If you bitter with ingredients besides hops, I'm guessing you should be even more careful about sanitation? I know hops have some antiseptic qualities.

What do you think? Is this splitting hairs...?

You don't have to worry about sanitation for anything you are boiling, but I was wondering about the dry-sprucing that the BYO recipe called for. I don't know if spruce has antiseptic qualities or not, but to be on the safe side, I was thinking that I could soak the dry-spruce addition in some grain alcohol and dump all of that into the fermenter.

 

[shrades]

I have a batch of spruce tip fermenting right now. Smells really good when boiling.

 

[Mirilis]

careful with spruce tips and especially if you use the extract.. youll end up with a batch of pine-sol. In my experience spruce is a nice flavor in very small ammounts.

 

[Walker]

careful with spruce tips and especially if you use the extract.. youll end up with a batch of pine-sol. In my experience spruce is a nice flavor in very small ammounts.

Interesting input. The BYO recipe calls for almost a full pound of spruce tips.

 

[Mirilis]

they probably had better luck with it than i did.. I used spruce extract and just a little goes a very long way with that stuff.