Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Hey-
I had a couple of questions for you all about spruce beer.

1. Has anyone ever tried spruce beer? And is it any good? Papazian likened it to "a very light bodied brown ale that tasted very, very similar to Pepsi-Cola. Now that may not sound appropriate for beer, but the fact is, it tasted fantastic, like an unsweetened Pepsi-Cola with a real beer character. It is a wonderfully refreshing and quenching beer."

2. I'm looking to probably brew some up just out of curiosity, and looking to replace 6.6 lbs of Briess CBW traditional dark malt extract syrup. Any suggestions on grains & qty?

Here is the recipe as is:
6.6 lbs Breiss CBW traditional dark malt extract syrup
4 oz    New green growth of spruce trees
2 oz    Vanguard or Hallertauer hops (boiling): 10 HBU
        American ale-type yeast

OG: 1.046-1.050
FG: 1.010-1.014
Bitterness: 32 IBU, Color 20 SRM

Thanks a lot! Talk to you all soon.

-Tom (#2)

I haven't tried one but in the same vein, Rogue makes a "Juniper Pale Ale" that employs, well, juniper. Duh. Anyway, check out Radical Brewing (Mosher loves wacky brew ingredients), and the current issue of All About Beer--there's a good article on herbs in brew.
Sounds tasty but be careful with herbals, some are naturally toxic so a bit of preliminary research will definitely pay off.

I'd try some Maris Otter (nutty, biscuity), Munich, Caramel 40, and Caramel 80 and Black Patent.

Here's the Briess description: http://www.briess.com/pdf/Extracts%20and%20Syrups/CBW%20Traditional%20Dark%20Powder/PIS%20BREW%20CBW%20Traditional%20Dark%20Powder.pdf

Here's some more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_beer

Rock on tree brewer.

I have heard about this style on a podcast, but never tried it.  The only pointer I remember hearing was to make sure to use spruce tips, and only the tips, and certainly NOT basic pine needles, as it turns out very nasty.

Hey Tom (wahoo Tom),

I just figured I'd throw in my 2 cents.

I know a very experienced brewer who created a spruce beer.  He said to go out to a clean forest as far away from cars as possible, and clip the first inch or so of the spruce needles into a container.  If memory serves me correctly, one requires about 2 cups volume for a 5 gallon batch.  I may be wrong about this quantity.  There is a way to boil the needles down to create a spruce extract, but I don't know anything about that method.  I can call him or try to find my notes if you want.  He gets excited that I brew because his son (best buddy from back home) hasn't started yet ;-)

For history, hops were illegal for a while, and people used all kinds of wild stuff in beer.  I've tried the following :

Legends Ltd Brewing (Scotland, highlands, I think)
-Kelpie Seaweed Ale
-Fraoch Heather Ale
-Alba Scots Pine Ale
-Ebulum Elderberry Black Ale

Rogue's Juniper is ... ok. (Florida, last thanksgiving, despite the name, the city of Treasure Island has a terrible beer selection.)

The Scots ales are very interesting indeed.  The kelpie is actually kind of boring compared to peanut oil fried seaweed found as an accompaniment to sushi.  I found those in 4 packs in MD liquor stores.
see : http://www.legendslimited.com/ebulum.html

I've personally considered trying the following,  but I've never actually put any of this in :
tea, sarsaparilla, anise, those sweet little red fruits from the trees around here (a Korean friend says her family makes wine or something with them), all manner of herbs

I have actually put some combination of the following into a beer :
cloves, cumin, coriander, black pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, squash, blackberries, pomegranites with rather good results.