My Colorado blue spruce tree has tips ripe for brewing, so I was thinking that brewing a spruce beer is in order. I’m thinking of of a colonial American era porter would be interesting, since I never brewed one of those before. I’ve always been a fan of Yuengling porter, although it doesn’t have any spruce in it.
Searching the internet. I’m not finding much for recipes, so I’ve come up with this, based on what I have on hand:
9 lbs. two row
2 lbs. flaked maize
0.5 lbs. Crystal 120°
6 oz. Carafa II
4 oz. Blackstrap molasses
I don’t know about spruce tips, but I was friends with the former brewer at Yeungling Tampa. I once asked him for a recipe for Black & Tan and he gave me both the recipes for Yuengling Porter and for their Lager and said that B&T was a 60/40 blend.
Here’s what he told me in March, 2006:
Yuengling Porter
OG 1.052 (12.95P)
14,700# 6-row 71%
2,500# 50L caramel malt 12%
1,000# black malt 5%
2,500# corn syrup 12%
44# cluster at start of boil
105# cluster at 15 min before knock out
My notes here are slightly confusing, but it looks like 10 IBU’s, 30% at start and 70% at 15m
He gave me some of the proprietary yeast as well.
I dunno about how many spruce tips to use. If I were brewing this, I’d go the route of creating a tincture or tea with the spruce tips and use it to figure out how much to add to your finished beer.
He said, “65% 6-row, 35% corn syrup, same hop schedule with clusters 30% at start of boil and 70% at 15 minutes”
My hand written notes are not clear on the IBU’s. I was trying to make a 10 gallon batch of the blend of the two beers.
Thanks for the feedback! Yes, I have brewed with Colorado spruce tips back in the late 1990s. I made an amber/red ale sort of beer, and the 1 quart of Colorado spruce tips added at the last 10 minutes for 5 gallons gave a nice sprucy flavor that I liked, so I am good with that.*
Thanks for the Yuengling porter recipe! I think using flaked maize instead of corn syrup will be a better approach. I find it interesting that Yuengling uses Clusters so heavy-handed at the end of the boil. I once brewed a 1.100 OG Classic American Barley Wine that was 70% 6-row/30% flaked maize tha had Cluster additions at 60, 30 and 15 minutes and Saaz at 0 minutes that came out outstanding. I need to do an all Clusters beer. I love me the Cluster hops.