TimT
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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!
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!
h34r:
