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Spruce beer may refer to a wide range of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages flavored with the buds, needles, or essence of spruce trees. Spruce has been a traditional flavoring ingredient throughout the upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere where it is found, often substituting for ingredients otherwise not available, such as hops. A number of flavors are associated with spruce-flavored beverages, ranging from floral, citrusy, and fruity to cola-like flavors to resinous and piney. This diversity in flavor likely comes from the choice of spruce species, the season in which the needles are harvested, and the manner of preparation. The fresh shoots of many spruces and pines are a natural source of vitamin C. Captain Cook had a type of spruce beer made during his sea voyages in order to prevent scurvy in his crew.
Malt beverages Spruce may be used to flavor traditional beer made from malted barley and water fermented with yeast. This flavoring can be added with spruce essence or by including spruce twigs or needles with the wort during the boiling stage of brewing, either in addition to or as a substitute for hops. See also gruit. Fermented sugar beverages Alcoholic spruce beer may also be made from sugar and flavoring from the spruce tree. Leaves, small branches, or extracted essence of spruce are boiled with sugar and fermented with yeast. Two different sources of sugar may be used, either molasses or white refined sugar. Some consider the latter to be better, but other aficionados prefer the complexity that molasses gives to the former. Soda In the Canadian province of Québec, spruce beer is an artificially flavoured non-alcoholic carbonated soft drink. Despite its name, it's flavour bears little resemblance to beer, and instead smells and tastes of more of evergreens. It is widely available in supermarkets, while alcoholic spruce beer is available only in specialty shops and some old time taverns. In Québec it is known in French as bière d'épinette. Europe Norway Spruce is used for making spruce beer widely in northern Europe (Dallimore & Jackson 1966). In Scandinavia it is used to flavor fermented ales in the absence of hops. North America Alcoholic spruce beer was popular in the colonial United States, and eastern Canada. Today Sitka spruce, native to the northwest coast of North America, tends to be favored, although other species of spruce have also been used. Lighter, more citrus-like flavors are produced by using the bright green fresh spring growth before the new needles and twigs harden and become woody. Sitka spruce trees on the north-central Oregon Coast develop spring growth in early to mid May. Commercial examples | ||||||||
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