Spruce tips (+) rye malt ale? Thoughts?

[mrphillips]

I made a Blue Spruce Ale last year and kept the recipe as basic as I could (DME, 2-row, wheat, cascade hops, spruce tips, S-05 yeast). It tasted great and placed in a competition...but I wanna liven it up a little bit.

I want to substitute the pound of wheat for a pound of flaked rye, as well as more than double the amount of spruce (I used 3.5 oz @ 20min. last year, this year I want 8 oz at 20min).

My theory is that the slightly spicy/earthy taste of the rye will go well with the sappy (almost citrusy) taste of the spruce and cascade hops, but I've never used any type of rye malt.

This will be a 5 gallon batch.

Thoughts?

 

[MaddBaggins]

Is there a clone of DogFishHeads Pennsylvania Tuxedo on here? It's brewed with spruce tips. I had some recently. It was delicious.
Yours sounds good. Go for it!

 

[mrphillips]

Same here! Such a good beer. I'd like to have a similar spruce profile.

 

[mrphillips]

I decided to stick with flaked wheat. I also replaced the 2-row with Marris Otter...just for funzies.

 

[karch]

Dogfish's Pennsylvania Tuxedo was really good, in my opinion. I've searching for a clone recipe to try and make it myself.

 

[gtslate]

Where do you source your spruce tips? Back yard?

 

[mrphillips]

Yep. Back at my dad's house in NY. They're the same trees he planted when my brother and I were born, so it has some neat history to it.

I guess most of the Blue Spruce up north are dying off from some sort of blight or something like that. Not sure how many more years I'll be able to make this beer, so I make sure to make it at least once a year.