Spruce Tips are Popping...Do I Dare???

[FromZwolle]

any thoughts on sap? my grandparents have a row of pine trees that are always bleeding sap thanks to a woodpecker. i'm lookin for a good apa or possibly red recipe to add the pine flavor and aroma to. it seems like spruce tips won't get the brew piney enough.

 

[bullinachinashop]

I made a really lite summer lawnmower beer last week. While cutting grass yesteday and going by my spuce tree, started wondering about adding some dry to one of my fermentors.

This beer will only be about 3.4% abv with a very light hop schedule.
I'm thinking of either soaking a cupfull of tips in vodka and adding to the primary or making a tea and adding.

Suggestions?????????

Bull

 

[wyzazz]

Dry hop with them! I just dry hopped my Spruce Budd Ale and will be bottling next weekend, I'll let everyone know what it tastes like but is smells amazing!

 

[bullinachinashop]

Dry hop with them! I just dry hopped my Spruce Budd Ale and will be bottling next weekend, I'll let everyone know what it tastes like but is smells amazing!

What do you think, 2 cups???

 

[wyzazz]

I did 5oz by weight.

 

[bullinachinashop]

Thanks wysazz,
If you ever come north, pm me and we'll get together for a beer!

Bull

 

[wyzazz]

No worries, sounds like a plan! Whereabouts are you?

 

[bullinachinashop]

About 20 mile east of Cleveland in Mentor.

Bull

 

[wyzazz]

Mentor huh, that's not too far away. I'm in the sticks, Atwater/Randolph, if you're out my way you let me know too!

 

[bullinachinashop]

Don't they have a big swapmeet in Randolph each year? If so when is it? i think I went to it about 15 or 20 years ago.
Bull

 

[wyzazz]

It's at the fairgrounds about 5mins down the road, it happened a few weeks ago if I remember correctly.

 

[wyzazz]

I just took a sample for a gravity reading and have to say, for a beer with NO HOPS whatsoever I'm impressed! It tastes like a spruce branch smells when burnt over a campfire, minus the smoke. I like it, very crisp and clean, malty but with a crisp bitterness added from the spruce. 5oz at 60 mins, 5oz at 5mins, 5oz dry hopped. This will be an every year brew for sure!

 

[Paco]

I just took a sample for a gravity reading and have to say, for a beer with NO HOPS whatsoever I'm impressed! It tastes like a spruce branch smells when burnt over a campfire, minus the smoke. I like it, very crisp and clean, malty but with a crisp bitterness added from the spruce. 5oz at 60 mins, 5oz at 5mins, 5oz dry hopped. This will be an every year brew for sure!

That was with fresh spruce growth right?

 

[wyzazz]

Yep, Colorado Blue Spruce. The buds were 1.5" to 2.5" long when I picked them, I just kept popping one off every few days and eating it until they tasted "sprucy" enough.

 

[Paco]

Yep, Colorado Blue Spruce... ...I just kept popping one off every few days and eating it until they tasted "sprucy" enough.

Yeah, well I've picked up some but I was starting to doubt they could contribute to any interesting taste. They hardly taste piny, a very light greenish flavor... either it's a matter of growth timing or spruce specie...

 

[wyzazz]

The beer doesn't taste like the spruce tips did, but it's tasty for sure!

 

[incutrav]

I brewed my Spruce IPA last weekend. I kept picking the tips to see what kind of flavor then had. It was so slight that I said screw it, and cut down a few whole branches and took a scissors and pruned two pint cups full of needles, mostly old growth, as those had a ton of aroma and flavor, while the new growth just tasted like grass. I have no idea the exact amount, but i put 1/2 of one cup in a 60min, the other half at flame out. I also put one whole cup in w/ the mash. No idea if it will contirubte anything to the beer, or if i will ever really be able to tell as i used Simcoe and other "piney" hops. My gut tells me I should have used WAY for spruce for it to come threw. I tasted a gravity sample the other day, its piney of course, but from the hops or the actual pine, ill never know.

 

[wyzazz]

I brewed my Spruce IPA last weekend. I kept picking the tips to see what kind of flavor then had. It was so slight that I said screw it, and cut down a few whole branches and took a scissors and pruned two pint cups full of needles, mostly old growth, as those had a ton of aroma and flavor, while the new growth just tasted like grass. I have no idea the exact amount, but i put 1/2 of one cup in a 60min, the other half at flame out. I also put one whole cup in w/ the mash. No idea if it will contirubte anything to the beer, or if i will ever really be able to tell as i used Simcoe and other "piney" hops. My gut tells me I should have used WAY for spruce for it to come threw. I tasted a gravity sample the other day, its piney of course, but from the hops or the actual pine, ill never know.

I have been told that the growth after it gets "solid" and is no longer a new bud will contribute a turpentine-like taste. Just what I've heard though.

 

[incutrav]

I had "heard" this as well. Only way to know for sure is to try it. Shorts Imperial Spruce used ONLY old growth spruce needles, as they picked the spruce in mid-summer and that stuff was top notch.

 

[wyzazz]

I've seen some folks use whole branches in the mash, who knows so many "myths" in the brewing world!

 

[incutrav]

I've seen some folks use whole branches in the mash, who knows so many "myths" in the brewing world!

I was going to put a couple whole branches into my mash, but i didnt know if sap would leech out of the wood and clog up my SS braid.

 

[wyzazz]

I'm really digging brewing with local organics, any thoughts on what I should use next?!!

 

[novafire]

I picked just over a pound of tips a few weeks ago and put them in the freezer.
I brewed up a fairly simple beer this weekend and tossed 5oz in at 0min and 5oz at 60min -- loosely based on a recipe from BYO from last year.

The tips I picked were still quite young and maybe only about 1in long at the time. They did not smell like much coming out of the freezer, just kinda grassy or like moist leaves. The hydro sample tasted about the same.

Is it better to pick them when they are significantly more mature?

The recipe also calls for a "dry hop" of 3oz of tips. I may try to pick some more mature tips for that if the beer tastes ok in a few weeks. I am hoping it does not taste like a wet lawn when it's all fermented out.

 

[wyzazz]

I picked just over a pound of tips a few weeks ago and put them in the freezer.
I brewed up a fairly simple beer this weekend and tossed 5oz in at 0min and 5oz at 60min -- loosely based on a recipe from BYO from last year.

The tips I picked were still quite young and maybe only about 1in long at the time. They did not smell like much coming out of the freezer, just kinda grassy or like moist leaves. The hydro sample tasted about the same.

Is it better to pick them when they are significantly more mature?

The recipe also calls for a "dry hop" of 3oz of tips. I may try to pick some more mature tips for that if the beer tastes ok in a few weeks. I am hoping it does not taste like a wet lawn when it's all fermented out.

FWIW - my tips didn't taste real "sprucey" when I ate them but the beer after fermenting out tasted very sprucey and ctirusy. I waited until mine were between 1 & 3" long and got a variety of them. I'm going to chill a bottle this week to see how it tastes and check carbonation.

 

[incutrav]

I would only use the older growth stuff if you want acutal spruce quailities. Like you say, the new growth stuff basically just tastes/smells like grass. I used almost only older growth stuff in my IPA. I tasted a gravity sample the other day after two weeks in the carboy, and the spruce is barley detecable still. Should have used WAY more, and I used a full pint glass of them in the boil. Im going to stuff the keg full of spruce when I rack later this week.

 

[wyzazz]

Just cracked my test bottle open, there's a little lack of carbonation but it'll be there in a few days. It smells great, lots of Piney/Woodsey aroma, and tastes just the same. It's an amber colored beer about 14SRM. I used WLP041 Pacific Ale and it gives this beer a light malty backbone, that brings the Spruce Flavor out nicely. I'll definitely make this again!

 

[Paco]

Just cracked my test bottle open, there's a little lack of carbonation but it'll be there in a few days. It smells great, lots of Piney/Woodsey aroma, and tastes just the same. It's an amber colored beer about 14SRM. I used WLP041 Pacific Ale and it gives this beer a light malty backbone, that brings the Spruce Flavor out nicely. I'll definitely make this again!

Mind sharing the details of your recipe?

 

[wyzazz]

I just assumed you wanted an Extract version, if you want AG then replace the 6lbs of DME with 10lbs of 2-Row.

SpruceBrau

Boil Volume: 6.55 gal Boil Time: 60 min

6 lbs DME Pilsen Light (Briess)
2 lbs Caramel Malt - 60L (Briess) (60.0 SRM)
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Secondary 7.0 days) Misc
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 5.0 min) Misc
5.00 oz Spruce Tips (Boil 60.0 min) Misc

White Labs #WLP041

Measured Original Gravity: 1.060 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.015 SG
Estimated Color: 14.1 SRM
Actual Alcohol by Volume: 5.87 %

 

[incutrav]

Im about half way threw my Spruce IPA keg. Turned out great. Lots of pine aroma, but still not exactly sure how much came from the actual spruce, since I used Chinook and Simcoe in the boil. I might use a less 'piney' hop next time to see exactly how much the pine really does. I have to assume some of the pine aspect is due to the Spruce. I used 95% old growth blue spruce needles, added 1/2 'pint' cup @60 and the other 1/2 at FO. I also DH w/ Citra, so I have a nice little citrus kick in there too.

 

[ericmsteen]

One of my LHBC members is huge into the "authentic old-style beer" stuff, and has made many a batch of spruce beer. Their best success was a demonstration brew at a local Renaissance festival. They lined the bottom of a wooden keg with pine boughs to use as a mash tun, which apparently worked fantastically. The beer was simple, mostly 2-row with a little crystal and on the heavy side (maybe 1080 OG?). All the pine came from the boughs in the MLT. It was just right; not overpowering, but still very present.

Do you happen to remember how much pine they used in the MLT? Just a couple branches, or was it measured out?