- Recipe Type
- All Grain
- Yeast
- WY3787 + Dregs
- Yeast Starter
- No
- Batch Size (Gallons)
- 5.5
- Original Gravity
- 1.054
- Final Gravity
- 1.003
- Boiling Time (Minutes)
- 60
- IBU
- 24
- Color
- 5
- Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 30 @ ambient temp
- Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
- 6 to 24 months @ ambient temp
- Tasting Notes
- Bright refreshing spruce on a refreshing golden wild ale base.
This beer is like walking through the forest. Huge spruce flavor, very prevalent without being harsh or astringent in any way. Bright and refreshing.
This post is more about getting good spruce character into a beer than it is about this particular recipe. I will explain more in the spruce technique section below. It was inspired by some incredible spruce and fir sours I've had from de Garde and Ale Apothecary.
Specs:
5.5 gallons
O.G. = 1.054
F.G. = 1.003
ABV = 6.5%
Grain:
9.25 lb 2 Row
1.70 lb Wheat
0.40 lb Vienna
Hops:
1.5 oz Fuggle 60 min
Yeast:
WY3787 High Gravity Trappist
Dregs from various bottles (Sante Adairius, Orval, Jolly Pumpkin, & Tilquin)
All added together on day 1
Fermentation:
I kept this beer in the same primary carboy for about 27 months before I decided to "spruce it up". The fermentation length depends entirely on how the character in the beer is developing. It likely would have been just as good a lot sooner, but with other beers in the pipeline, this is when I got to it.
Adding spruce:
I primarily used Norway Spruce tips, but also a little bit of Oregon Fir tips. I foraged the tips in May while they were somewhat large but still very soft. I used around 2 full sandwich baggies of spruce tips per gallon of beer.
Once I had foraged the tips, I decided to use two separate methods of imparting their flavor in the beer. Most of what I read online said to use them in the boil, which wasn't an option since my beer was already brewed!
1) Dry sprucing: I just tossed them right into the carboy. I think I used somewhere around 25% of my spruce tips to dry spruce, and based on samples I don't believe I got a whole lot of flavor using this method.
2) Gin tincture: For the other 75% of my spruce tips, I put them into a mason jar and covered them with just enough gin to completely cover them. I would shake the mason jar every so often. After 1 week, I strained the tincture and threw away the spruce tips. Then I put the same tincture back into a mason jar with fresh spruce tips for another week. This resulted in a very potent, very sprucey tincture. I ended up adding about 1.5 oz of tincture per gallon of beer. The gin tincture is what made this beer great!
I could see this sprucing technique working really well in a variety of beers, but I think the spruce flavor really shines beautifully in a wild ale. A brown ale base could work well as a more wintery spruce wild ale. I could also see adding some citrus zest, dry hops, berries or herbs to compliment the spruce flavor as well.
Enjoy!
This post is more about getting good spruce character into a beer than it is about this particular recipe. I will explain more in the spruce technique section below. It was inspired by some incredible spruce and fir sours I've had from de Garde and Ale Apothecary.
Specs:
5.5 gallons
O.G. = 1.054
F.G. = 1.003
ABV = 6.5%
Grain:
9.25 lb 2 Row
1.70 lb Wheat
0.40 lb Vienna
Hops:
1.5 oz Fuggle 60 min
Yeast:
WY3787 High Gravity Trappist
Dregs from various bottles (Sante Adairius, Orval, Jolly Pumpkin, & Tilquin)
All added together on day 1
Fermentation:
I kept this beer in the same primary carboy for about 27 months before I decided to "spruce it up". The fermentation length depends entirely on how the character in the beer is developing. It likely would have been just as good a lot sooner, but with other beers in the pipeline, this is when I got to it.
Adding spruce:
I primarily used Norway Spruce tips, but also a little bit of Oregon Fir tips. I foraged the tips in May while they were somewhat large but still very soft. I used around 2 full sandwich baggies of spruce tips per gallon of beer.
Once I had foraged the tips, I decided to use two separate methods of imparting their flavor in the beer. Most of what I read online said to use them in the boil, which wasn't an option since my beer was already brewed!
1) Dry sprucing: I just tossed them right into the carboy. I think I used somewhere around 25% of my spruce tips to dry spruce, and based on samples I don't believe I got a whole lot of flavor using this method.
2) Gin tincture: For the other 75% of my spruce tips, I put them into a mason jar and covered them with just enough gin to completely cover them. I would shake the mason jar every so often. After 1 week, I strained the tincture and threw away the spruce tips. Then I put the same tincture back into a mason jar with fresh spruce tips for another week. This resulted in a very potent, very sprucey tincture. I ended up adding about 1.5 oz of tincture per gallon of beer. The gin tincture is what made this beer great!
I could see this sprucing technique working really well in a variety of beers, but I think the spruce flavor really shines beautifully in a wild ale. A brown ale base could work well as a more wintery spruce wild ale. I could also see adding some citrus zest, dry hops, berries or herbs to compliment the spruce flavor as well.
Enjoy!
