Non-Alch. Spruce Soda (Need Spruce tips - Melbourne)

[Cantoffie]

Looking to brew a traditional Quebecois spruce beer/soda. This is an amazingly refreshing drink in the summer.

Anyone know where I can find some spruce tips around Melbourne?

 

[TimT]

Spruce is a really nice flavour in beer. Unfortunately the best time for picking spruce tips is early spring when they're green and fresh and contain lots of zesty lemony and citrussy flavours, and heaps of Vitamin C, and we're out of that now. It is also possible to buy spruce essence, but I'm not sure where - maybe hit the home brew stores and look at their essence shelves. You wouldn't need to add much - in fact, just add it a drop at a time to ensure the flavour doesn't become overwhelming.

I had plans myself for a big spruce brew (or two) this year, but one potential tree near Merri Station turned out to be a deodar (looks similar, is different). I knew of several spruces in national parks but they were, well, in national parks. And then I took a walk to a nearby street where a spruce was growing in the front garden, and knocked on the front door.... the old chap there went by the name of Bruno, and he seemed decidedly suspicious of me. He talked to me through the screen door and insisted his spruce wasn't sprouting yet. He seemed uninterested in my offers of home brew in return for some snippings of his spruce (I just can't imagine why....) Maybe I should have, er, spruced myself up.

So yeah. If you find some spruce essence I'd love to find out myself

 

[Cantoffie]

Hmm, good to know. Looks like I missed the boat on fresh Spruce tips. Oh Well.

Wonder if Grain and Grape would have Spruce Essence? Or perhaps there might be some at natural foot stores that sell burdock root and other flavourings for soda's and root beer?

 

[TimT]

Yes - or obviously ebay or somewhere like that. I did get pointed out an online store for spruce brewers but I couldn't find it last night.

 

[billygoat]

Would this be a Spruce tree?

 

[TimT]

It's definitely a conifer. It might be a type of spruce. Picea glauca (blue spruce) is the usual for brewing purposes. It has pale blue, almost grey needles, grows in a kind of Christmas tree shape, and when it sprouts tips in spring they're green looking (more the colour above).

Mind you, I've made spruce beer, pine needle beer, and fir beer and they all taste pretty good

 

[TimT]

One thing to be wary of is the yew tree, which is poisonous. It bears more than a passing resemblance to several other conifers and can be hard to tell apart, especially from the fir. So don't go put yew in your beer, m'kay? Remember the Old Farmer saying: Yew makes You go Ew!