I kegged the spruce ale tonight and was very pleased with the results. I crash-cooled one of the carboys to see if that helped with the abundance of yeast still in solution when I racked to secondary. Just from a visual check, there wasn’t any noticable difference, but the flavor of the warm carboy was much more interesting. No surprise there, but both had a really nice, unique citrus sweetness. The warmer beer had much more of it, and as luck would have it, that’s the keg that I’ll be bottling from for gifts.
Now, we just need to find a name. “Just the tip” won’t work since I obviously used more than just spruce tips, and, well, it’s a little crass for something that we’ll pour at Christmas dinner. Michelle is looking for alliteration, so we’ll see soon what the name is. Current favorite? Santa’s Sprucey Sauce.
I am very interested in brewing a Spruce Ale for next Christmas and wanted to know if you used the spring sprigs from a Norway Spruce or another variety.
I got them from a friend and I think he said they were blue spruce, though couldn’t tell you for certain. The best way to tell if they’ll work is to pick one, pluck it in your mouth and see what the flavor is like. I’ve read of other folks using Sitka and Norway spruce, but no first hand experience with either.
Just stumbled on this blog – very interesting. Haven’t tried homebrew, before – too busy with work, I guess – but the spruce beer sounds incredibly tasty :).
GREAT site, man. I just bottled a Red ale that I’m brewing as a wedding gift for a relative, and used your calculator for the abv%. Thanks, and I’ve bookmarked you. Hope to return to catch up on reading real soon.
Spruce beer sounds good, Im venturing into something similar myself soon, making a Finnish Sahti with Spruce, Fir and Juniper. Can’t wait to see how it comes out, Cheers
BB