Home of the BrewNosers

Ok, I tried a couple of those Spruce beers I made a while back, this weekend. The guys that tried it said it was great. Now these guys are
BMC guys, so I thought it was a good compliment. I thought it was all right myself My buddies father ( in his 80's ) thought it tasted
just like the spruce beer he remembered drinking when he was younger, and said it was great.
It didn't over whelm the beer and was there in the taste with a little after taste of spruce also. I can see myself making this as a staple brew in my
lineup.

It will be interesting to see how the judges in Toronto judge it in the Great Canadian Homebrew Competition this year as I entered it in there.

So are you using red spruce tips?

Sounds good to me!! May try that next spring. I believe that is when you are supposed to pick the tips.

Can ya post your recipe? I may have missed it if you did earlier.

mr x wrote:So are you using red spruce tips?

Fresh growth tips from the Black Spruce.

Relic wrote:Sounds good to me!! May try that next spring. I believe that is when you are supposed to pick the tips.

Can ya post your recipe? I may have missed it if you did earlier.

Yep, the fresh tips are what I used.

I'll post the recipe later for you

Any chance you could save us a couple of bottles, Tony? I might be over in a week!

chalmers wrote:Any chance you could save us a couple of bottles, Tony? I might be over in a week!

I'll save you some anyway... I still have 4 dozen left. I'll be going on holidays starting Friday night and won't be in town much,
but give me a shout as to when you are available, and I'll see if I will be around. In any case I'll save you some.

How much spruce did you use in your recipe? I just made my Black Spruce Ale and used 8 oz for 60 min and 2 more at 0 min. Last year I only used 4 oz and there was just a hint of spruce.

Tony L wrote:

chalmers wrote:Any chance you could save us a couple of bottles, Tony? I might be over in a week!

I'll save you some anyway... I still have 4 dozen left. I'll be going on holidays starting Friday night and won't be in town much,
but give me a shout as to when you are available, and I'll see if I will be around. In any case I'll save you some.

i'll try to be around as well Chris, but i've been working 10 hour days a two hour round trip away, so i may be too zonked

i'm interested in trying one of the spruce beers too, Tony!

We just brewed the first pilot batch for the Spruce IPA at the Rockbottom on Saturday. The tips we picked last weekend sure are a lot 'sprucier' than the ones we picked and used last year - but the tips were also a lot longer. We shall see how it works out. I would be interested in seeing some recipes from you fellas too! The one we brew is certainly not traditional. I found the batches we brewed with the tips from last year were not that sprucy at all really - a hint perhaps, but mostly just awesome citrus flavour and almost a fruit loops finish.

Jason, I used 4 ounces at 10 minutes to compliment the hops I used for bittering.

Don't worry, Liam, you'll get a sample too

Resurrecting an old thread here.

Tony L wrote:Jason, I used 4 ounces at 10 minutes to compliment the hops I used for bittering.

Don't worry, Liam, you'll get a sample too

Did you use any late addition hops as well? Did you "dry spruce" it? Thinking that Chinook would be good along with the spruce to get a nice piney aroma.

The recipe that I have down so far is:

Spruce Willis - Spruce IPA
O.G. 1.067
IBU 67

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5.00 kg Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 87.7 %
0.50 kg Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.8 %
0.20 kg Carafoam (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 3.5 %
50.00 g Nugget [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 4 67.1 IBUs
200 g Black spruce tips