On Friday, we brewed a batch of beer that incorporated freshly picked spruce tips. I chose a pale ale (like this recipe), but altered the hops a bit and threw in some oats and ginger for good measure. Oats in  a pale ale? Why not?

Recipe

• 10 lb – 2 row malt
• 1.5 lb – Vienna malt
• 0.5 lb – Victory malt
• 0.2 lb -Flaked Oats (a few handfuls)
• 18 oz – fresh spruce tips for 45min (could also use frozen)
• 1.0 oz – Cascade hops (4.5 alpha) for 45min
• 2.0 oz Palisades (9.5 alpha) for 10 minutes (could use regular Willamette for longer)
• Some fresh ginger chunks for the last 5 minutes.
• WyEast London ESB yeast

Strike at 175 to hold around 153 for 1 hour. Then batch sparge for 6 gallons and boil for 50 minutes. We did not have much evaporation and ended up with 5.5 gallons with an OG of 1.050. Should produce an ABV around 4.6%. The final wort did not smell of pine at all (or even ginger). Supposedly, the spruce takes a few month of bottle conditioning to mature. Should make a great holiday beer.

Look how big Jamie’s hops are already!

Load recipe here:

Gabriel McGovern^Sitka Oatmeal Pale Ale^^41^33^5.5^50^9^4^66^100^8.8^0.3^0.8^0.7^0.4^0.3^71^71^10^92^91^1.5^91^90^0.5^66^66^0.2^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^61^61^5^1^45^0^1^42^1^10^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^0^1^0^63^153^1.2^^1.015^^Used Palisades not Willamette. Also add 18 oz of spruce tips for 45minutes. And ginger chunks for last 5. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^4.5^9.5^0^0^0^0^0.2^