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

FAQs

How much spruce tips for beer? ›

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.

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.

They can be cooked into a sweet syrup and mixed with co*cktails or used as a medicinal oral syrup because of their high amounts of Vitamin C. Spruce tips can also be pickled to help diffuse the intensity of the flavor and enjoyed later as snacks, on salads or sandwiches.

Typically harvested in the spring, spruce tips are said to contribute a number of characteristics to beer ranging from citrus and floral to cinnamon and pine, making it a nice compliment to many styles.

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.

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.”

It also was 7.5% alcohol content, so unwise to drink too many… I had never heard of Spruce Beer previously and was amazed to find it has a rich local history.

Spruce tips can be eaten in a variety of ways from raw to a syrup. Many of the best recipes I have found are German. Recipes like spruce tip salads and chocolate covered spruce tips. My youngest daughter, Mia, likes to simply snack on them straight from the trees.

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.

Boil spruce tips in water for 15 minutes (approximately 4 oz of spruce in 3 cups of water) to make a wonderful essence that can be used in making bread or other baking recipes. Check out food ideas below! Prepare as a tea: Pour 8 oz of boiling water over 1/2oz of spruce. Cover and steep 3-4 minutes, strain, and serve.

Alaskan Brewing made a Spruce IPA last year. Piney and hoppy, a rather good combination IMHO. I would recommend this one, especially if you like “dank and piney” in your beer. The Alaskan Brewery make Spruce IPA which has Sitka Spruce tips added for flavor.

Spices are a prime choice. Spices like cinnamon or peppercorns are a great choice for the kettle. Resinous spices like rosemary work better with heat extraction, so they should be added to the list. Fruit zest, like orange, lemon, or lime, often go into the kettle.

Hops are one of the four main ingredients in beer, and they play an important role in the flavor and aroma of the brew. Hops are the female flowers of the hop plant, Humulus lupulus, and they are used to add bitterness, flavor, and aroma to beer.

So now, you know you need 0.5 mL of flavoring per ounce (113 mL) of beer left.

An average five gallon batch grain bill (total amount of grain to be used) with pre-boil gravity of 1.035 will call for ten pounds of grain. Each pound of grain will absorb approximately 15 ounces of water.

Place the spruce tips in the clean glass jar. Pour the honey over the spruce tips. (If the honey is thick and difficult to pour, warm slightly in a sauce pan to loosen). Allow the honey to infuse for a couple weeks.

For one drink, grab your favorite pint glass and first add a few drops of food coloring. Depending on how vibrant you want your brew, you may want to add at least 2-3 drops per glass.