I’m getting ready to make a Christmas Tree IPA next weekend and I’m still having trouble finalizing a recipe. What I want to do is take a pretty standard IPA, but add some pine flavor, but most importantly, a nice pine aroma to it. I’d prefer to avoid any syrups, as I’ve read a lot of things about disastrous results with that kind of additive, but I’m not sure what else to do. Some have suggested using actual piece of a pine tree, but I’m not completely sure how to go about it.
Do any of the much-better-than-my-homebrewing brains out there have any suggestions tips or experiences to share?
unfotunatly, if you want to use real pine you are brewing at the wrong time of year. you want to use the fresh light green tips of the branches as they start growing in the spring. I beleive you want to use spruce but I cannot now recall the particular varieties favored.
the aroma of pine-sol comes from Yarrow, or it did originally. Also a olde-tyme brewing herb and a really good herb to know about. The leaves when dried and powdered will stop bleeding in minor cuts and the leaves and flowers are somewhat antimicrobial. It is known as the ‘Battlefield’ herb for these reasons.
EDIT after hitting the POST button I thought about what I had just said and realized that one might be able to make a xmas tree beer with the addition of a little yarrow which should be found at any healthfood store or herb store with a good selection of dried herbs.
Sitka spruce is favored, from further north is supposed to be better. For what it’s worth, the new growth of Sitka will not give you a piney aroma, it is much more citrusy. I like it a lot. If you’ve ever had Alaskan Winter, they use Sitka spruce in that.
[quote]Spruce is supposed to best and your are correct about the new growth aspect.
However, if the tips were exposed to the boil for a short time (last 15 minutes?) maybe the harsher components could be avoided.
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A short boil used to be the common belief. However, Pete Devaris who is pretty much the authority on spruce beers recommends boiling for about an hour.
I’ve judged an American Pale Ale with spruce that he brewed and it was awesome. The surprising thing about it was that although it was highly hopped the spruce still came through.
Pete recommends Sitka Spruce. I’ve used white spruce and the beers came out pretty good. However, I have yet to try the extended boiling that Pete recommends.
If you are serious about brewing a spruce beer I recommend searching the Forum for Pete Devaris and reading all the posts with respect to his spruce beer suggestions.
Spruce beers are good. Pine beers scare the willies out of me. Yuck!
I boil my spruce tips for an hour, as directed by Pete Devaris. it works great, turns out really nice. His wife even makes a great spruce tip jelly by boiling the tips for an hour and then (presumably) straining out the tips and adding gelatin.
Tremendous responses! Thanks for everything you guys are saying!
I’ve heard about Simcoe, and it’s been recommended, but my local homebrew store doesn’t have any in stock. I love the idea of going for tips specifically – and I was just using Pine as a catch-all for that type of tree, though spruce was my (albeit unvoiced) intention. I live in Colorado, and my intent was to head up to the hills and snip some real tips and use those, but obviously the time of year has some effect. Does anyone think that the time of year will ruin it, or can I just boil them for an hour and roll with that? And to be clear (I’m a rookie, sorry) you’re saying boil them for an hour, and then proceed with the rest of the recipe in that boil, right?
Also, the suggestion of yarrow is VERY interesting, something I’m definitely going to read up on before I brew this weekend.
