Spruce Beer Homebrew Recipe (made with spruce tips) (2024)

FAQs

How much spruce tips to add to beer? ›

So if you were brewing a porter or a stout it would probably be recommended to go with 2lbs or so. For a lighter beer 1lb should be fine. The young spruce tips that we harvest are not harsh, piney or resiny.

Today Sitka spruce, native to the northwest coast of North America, tends to be favored, although other species of spruce have also been used. Lighter, more citrus-like flavors are produced by using the bright green fresh spring growth before the new needles and twigs harden and become woody.

Fermented Spruce Tip Syrup

To make your syrup ferment, add ½ cup (4 oz) water to the basic proportions below, or just enough water so that the spruce tips are just barely covered with liquid from the get-go. Anywhere from ⅓ to ½ cup of water will do the trick.

Lots of piney, resinous notes, which many craft beer fans have come to expect from New World hops. As one online rater put it in a review of Ballast Point's Spruce Tip Sculpin: “Like regular Sculpin, but more dank.”

While all spruce tips are edible, I find blue spruce to be the most intense flavor. Spruce tips can be enjoyed raw, cooked into any dish and used as you might rosemary because their flavor profile is similar. I think that this flavor would pair well with white gamey meat and chicken.

Spruce tips have a distinct taste — citrus with a hint of resin. You can snack on them fresh or or add them to salads. Dried spruce tips can be ground in a coffee grinder and make a great nutmeg like spice – check out the recipe for Moose Steak with Yukon Rub and for Northern Pumpkin Pie! They can also be used in teas.

Contrary to what its name suggests, spruce beer is a fir-flavoured, non-alcoholic fizzy drink.

Spruce contains Vitamin C (as do hemlock, pine, juniper, and lots of other evergreens). Spruce beer was introduced to America by the colonial military, as a practical and economic means to keep soldiers happy and scurvy-free.

The young shoots, which stand out from the darker mature needles from last year break off easily from the branch for effortless harvest. Not all spruce tips taste the same. The Forager Chef recommends White Spruce, Blue Spruce, and Norway Spruce.

Directions. To make the spruce syrup, combine the sugar and water in a sauce pan over medium heat until the sugar is melted and fully dissolved into the water. Place the spruce tips in a heat safe container and pour the hot sugar syrup over it. Cover and let sit for as long as possible to infuse the flavor.

How long do spruce tips last? ›

If you have a few bags of spruce tips in the freezer, now is the time to use them before the harvesting season begins again. Two of the best ways to freeze spruce tips is to bag them up in plastic freezer baggies or to vacuum seal them and then freeze. Spruce tips can last up to one year.

Use Like Hops

You can use spruce tips much like you would use any hop. Add fresh tips, and possibly small cut twigs and branches to pickup more of the earthy bitter resin, to different parts of your boil. Then add fresh spruce tips only, to the end of the boil for aroma additions.

Enjoy a fresh glass of our signature brew, Skagway Brewing Company's Spruce Tip Blonde Ale. The sweet citrus flavor and smooth finish are created using hydroelectric power to combine the flavors of Skagway's crystal-clear untreated water with hand-picked locally sourced spruce tips.

– Spruce Beer.

Suggested use rates are 0.01% to 0.02% (w/v) of terpenes to beer.

We usually go by a 1 to 1 ratio. So if your bottle calls for 2 teaspoons of sugar for carbonation then you would add 2 teaspoons of honey. Any more and you could risk over carbonating the beer. If you are using the Monin Flavor Syrups just check to see if yours is sugar-free or not.

Capps says they should be mixed first with a spirit of at least 190 proof, such as Everclear, before adding to the beer. For a six-gallon batch, he recommends adding just 1 ml of terpene extract mixed with 5 ml of alcohol.