Homebrewing is one of those DIY endeavors that can be a lot of fun, and can also be tricky to fit in when times get busy. I hadn’t brewed a beer at home since my all-grain Pumpkin Spice Ale in the fall of 2013, so we were long overdue. Fortunately, we got motivated by a prolific homebrewing friend living up the river who is keeping his fermenting carboys at our place. You come home enough times to carboys full of homebrew thinking “These could be mine,” and you get things in gear pretty quickly. I always wanted to brew a traditional spruce beer, and we finally got around to it. It was one of those things that always seemed too complicated to fit in, and once we did it, I couldn’t believe how simple it was!
My inspiration was a traditional Yukon recipe we found on the Brewnosers forum:
2.35 kg molasses
1.5 oz ginger root
17.5 oz spring spruce tips
Boil in a kettle up to 3 hours. Add 10 oz spruce tips to the primary and top off with water.
What I really liked about this recipe was the simplicity of the three ingredients. Our friend had a bad molasses brewing experience, so we decided to go with raw sugar and add a small amount of molasses for flavor. He was brewing a traditional oatmeal stout, so it was a big brewing day all around in our house.
The recipe we ended up using was:
2 1/2 Lbs ginger root
2 1/2 Lbs frozen spruce tips
8 Lbs raw sugar
1 cup backstrap molasses
1 packet Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast
We also added about 1 gallon of H2O to top off the 5 gallon carboy.
This ended up being a lot of ginger and a lot of spruce, and no grains or hops. One of the things I like most about homebrewing is that you can try different things that suit your tastes. Mine happen to be trees and roots. Go figure.
The house smelled amazing while the ingredients were boiling on the stove. The best I can describe it is a holiday forest wonderland. It will be a perfect winter treat.
The Specific gravity reading was 12% after boiling, and 8.5% after adding water to the carboy and pitching the yeast. Not too shabby.
There was a time when people brewed with what they had around them in abundance, whether that be grains, apples, herbs, ginger or spruce. Brewing doesn’t have to involve an expensive grain bill or a list of special ingredients from the homebrewers supply shop. This cost under $20 for the ginger and yeast, and could not have been more simple to brew. I love that this beer is made of the trees that grow around us, and will be a true taste of home. Now I’m motivated to finally brew that nettle beer this spring! Stay tuned.
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