# Spruce and juniper in beers



## TimT (20/12/13)

Interested that I couldn't find much mention of these traditional beer flavourings, spruce and juniper, on AHB. I've tried both of them this year - I've used both in combination with hops but next year I might just drop the hops altogether.

_Spruce beer_: I did a write up of my spruce beer brewing efforts here: 

http://willtypeforfood.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/get-sloshed-with-jane-austen.html

Basically, I tried two spruce beers: a molasses-based beverage, from a 17th century recipe used by the British army, where you just boiled some hops and some spruce tips for a bit in some water and then stirred in molasses into the water when you removed from the boil. That one tasted effing awful, and I pretty much blame the molasses. (Traditional recipes usually include a lot of other spices too - ginger, allspice, cinnamon - which would give it a not unpleasant gingerbready/fruitcakey effect.)

I also tried a spruce witbier and that one turned out superbly: I cut back on the amount of hops I added so that the taste of the spruce and the hops seemed to balance out nicely: a straightforward witbier with a slight citrussy bitterness/sourness. Interestingly, this beer seems to be keeping quite well now - it's possible the spruce has had a preservative effect.

_Juniper beer_: while I don't have my notes on hand I tried juniper in a few stouts and porters. Best effects seemed to come when I added some crushed berries to the wort when it's cooled down, and just let it infuse into the brew. You don't need many berries - a teaspoonful of them will be enough for a gallon of beer, I think. They add a powerful but not unpleasant fruity/piney essence to the beer.

Juniper is of course a traditional flavouring in gin, and apparently is a preservative, too. 

Next year I want to branch out with more adjuncts like these, and go completely hopless on some beers. One traditional method of making beers with juniper and spruce seems to be to make 'juniper water' or 'spruce water' beforehand by boiling the ingredients in water and afterwards using that water to perform a mash. I'm interested in trying that because it seems to me this might(?) be a way of improving mash efficiency, if those ingredients add these mysterious salts to the water that I'm told help in the mash process(?) And my other speculation is that they may add nutrients for the yeast.

Be interested to hear about other brewers' experiences with these traditional flavourings!


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## Pickaxe (20/12/13)

Nice work mate. Good on you for stepping out. Be interested to hear more? Got any pics of ya brews?

pickaxe


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## TimT (20/12/13)

I'll have to work on the pics.... used to be able to take them on my phone, now it's decided it doesn't want to do them. Puzzling, but then again it was just a cheap-as-chips version I got to replace an old phone.


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## brewtas (20/12/13)

I was reading about Norwegian farmhouse beer the other day and the guy mentioned that they use juniper branch infused water for every part of the process - even cleaning. It's an interesting read: brewing a Norwegian farmhouse ale


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## Mardoo (21/12/13)

Check out sahti, a Finnish beer using juniper foliage as a filter for the mash. There's a sahti in the recipe DB and some good articles online. I'd post links but I'm on my phone and it's just a pain. I have yet to make one but definitely will be as I'm half Finnish. Anchor Steam's Christmas offering on year was a spruce tip beer. Totally awesome.


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## TimT (21/12/13)

Great link Brewtas! Mardoo I definitely want to do Sahti too - mashing through juniper branches was a Norwegian technique too, similar to filtering the wort through juniper as in Brewtas's link.

We have a juniper in our backyard - still very small, much to small to chop a branch off here or there. Hopefully be able to use it in coming years: in the meantime I've got a bag of juniper berries I got from the local plaza. I got the spruce tips from a young tree in my mother-in-law's place in Bright, but spruces are very slow growing. In the meantime I'm keeping an eye out for some local spruce sources. Also want to try pine needle beer....


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## Mardoo (21/12/13)

Botanical Gardens? h34r:

I've been keeping my eye out. There's a lot around Melbourne at least. I'll try to remember to post my sahti links when I'm back at my desktop, which won't be for a week.


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## TimT (21/12/13)

Almost definitely the Botanical Gardens! Though ideal would be a neighbour with a spruce. I'll find something. Would like to do a list of plant resources for brewers round my area, might get round to that soon.


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## TimT (21/12/13)

(We found a big ol' spruce in the St Kilda gardens, though not the right sort.)


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## brewtas (21/12/13)

That blog also has some really fascinating stuff about Lithuanian brewing traditions.

There's a couple of juniper bushes in my area, not sure about spruce though. I might need to give some of this stuff a try.


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## TimT (21/12/13)

Spruce sprout fresh tips in spring - they're more green and have a lot of vitamin C in them. (Spruce beer was used as a medicine against scurvy for this reason). They're good for picking then. You don't need too many fresh tips. It probably would be good to make 'spruce water' or 'spruce syrup' before mashing the beer - that way you can add more water to dilute the flavour if necessary. From what I read it sounds like you can treat juniper in a very similar way - use the fresh tips, twigs, and leaves as well as the berries to add flavour to a brew, or even to filter the mash through.


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## Mardoo (12/1/14)

Okay, finally getting around to posting those sahti links I dug up:

This was one of the best I found: http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/styles/6_4style.html

And a few others:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2011/09/sahti-traditional-finnish-beer/
http://www.thebrewguys.com/2011/09/brewing-a-finnish-traditional-sahti/
http://byo.com/component/k2/item/79-a-mighty-finn-beer
http://byo.com/component/k2/item/730-gruitbier-style-profile
http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-000861.html

I can't quite bring myself to brew one with juniper berries. That's a juniper berry beer, not SAHTI :angry: B)


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## lukiferj (12/1/14)

Thanks Mardoo. Have been thinking about this for a while. Must get my ass in to gear. I have heaps of relatives in Finland so should be able to get the yeast easily enough


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## TimT (12/1/14)

_Today sahti is, at its best, a festive farm brew served at rural feasts such as summer weddings. More technically, sahti is a very potent, astoundingly full-bodied and turbid top-fermenting beer. The original gravity of sahti ought to be no less than 1.075 (18 °). In fact, a more typical sahti brewed for festive purposes varies in range from 1.100 to 1.120 (25-30 °). Its alcohol content typically varies from 7 to 11% (v/v)... _

Woah dude!


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## Mardoo (12/1/14)

Seriously. That'll get ya festive pretty quickly! And end the festivities pretty quickly too...


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