Spruce Beer

This was the other beer brewed before my summer vacay. This one deserves the same salvo I give in person - The historical origins of this beer, for me, lie in the colonial United States pre-revolutionary war of 1776. Most of the founding fathers, commoners, townsfolk, blacksmiths, town cryer and many other stations of people, brewed their own beer. England having a longer and richer history of ale, had progressed in their hop growing moreso than the scant wild hops that mostly grow in wetter climates of northwestern North America not yet colonized. In rebellion to the hegemonic taxation without representation of the british empire imposed on colonial markets, hops included, the brewers said Basta! to the leafy green flower and venceremos! to the needly green pine. Spring growth of the white spruce tree was harvested and functioned as both a preservative (as hops is) and a flavoring agent. In my attempts to utilize the natural surroundings of a northwestern Ontario hobby farm, I decided to don this rebellious spirit and brew a Spruce beer.

The process was quite rewarding as most new experiences in homebrewing are. The smells, the colors of the wort, the additions to the boil making the process more engaging all the time. This recipe called for no specialty grains and about 6 bags of 500gram dark DME (dry malt extract) which was fairly costly as my brew shop doesn't sell the cheaper dark LME. Hallertauer hops were added for finishing aroma to help even out the spruce. Perhaps I will do full spruce and no hops next time. The brewing produced a very rich gingerbread smell that I haven't smelled since, with other recipes.

Like the Anchor Steem, this beer sat for about 2 months. At the right, you can see the mild trube that built at the top, but also, the trub settled around the ridges in the Italian made carboy. I prefer the Mexican glass carboys for this very reason. The wort was left on its trub for the entire 2 months. This batch is the only one to date that has not "worked" and this leaving on the trub could be one of many things that resulted in it failing. The beer was mixed with 1 1/2 cups of dextrose (the recommended for regular ales is 3/4 cup) before bottling as my homebrew store indicates on their dextrose packages. Even with this much priming sugar, the beer had absolutely no head. It tasted like sweet tea with a bit of sourness, almost as if it was still wort and no fermentation had occurred.

As hard as it was, the lot of it ended up in this garbage can shortly after. I was not pleased with the 2 week outcome, even with only a few batches under my belt I know when something is not beer or completely lacks all beer elements - this did. I saved two bottles and have tried adding dried yeast to them and will wait and see if the sugar gets eaten.