Spruce Ale (version 3.0)
Saturday, November 27th, 2010
This is my third batch of spruce ale. The base recipe is solid, but I like to switch up the spruce and hops in each version.
This year, I am going for a truly spruced-out beer. My hope is to have it taste/smell like you are drinking an xmas tree.The ginger and aroma hops have been dropped and the spruce amounts have been kicked way up. I may even have to “dry spruce” a little.
For 12 gallons (started as 10, read below)
- 20 lbs 2 row
- 3 lbs Vienna
- 1 lb victory
- 0.5 lbs oats
- Protein Rest @ 130 for 20 min (see notes below)
- Mashed @ 153 for 60 min
60min boil
- 1.7 oz nugget @ 45
- 20oz spruce @ 30
- 20oz spruce @ 20
- 20oz spruce @ 10
WyEast London ESB yeast
Brew Notes
Two things were a bit different during this brew session:
First, I decided to use the “recommended” 7+ gallons of strike water. Normally, I simply add water until it looks like thin oatmeal. This time, the tun was filled and … for some reason, I couldn’t get the temps right. It resulted in 20 minutes of 130 degree “protein rest” before I could boil more hot water the bring it up to the proper 153 degrees.
The dough in seemed to greatly increase the efficiency – so, I decided to do the second item and take a gravity reading before the boil. Turns out that I already had 12.5 gallons of 1.054.
Seeing as I wanted an OG of 1.055 – I decided to make this a 12 gallon batch, rather then the original 10. The hops were adjusted accordingly. I also boiled 2 extra gallons of water to replace what boiled off.
Otherwise, everything went smoothly :)
nagmay Says:
Just noticed that the scale shows 1.5oz of hops. That was the correct amount for 10gal. I did end up adding another 0.2oz to make the total 1.7oz
This gives the beer a calculated bitterness of 35IBU.
All of the aroma will be from the spruce. I hope that I added enough.
Brandon Says:
Want
Gina Says:
Where the hell did you get spruce tips this time of year???
nagmay Says:
@Brandon,
Let’s see how this one tastes in two weeks. If it turns out, I would be glad to send you a bottle for festivus!
@Gina,
They were picked in May and have been sitting in my freezer. Seemed to hold up really well. Here is a photo from when we originally gathered them: http://twitpic.com/1jspez
Spruce Tip Brew « Rooftop Brew Says:
[…] for. So I started formulating for a bigger dark winter beer. Then a coworker posted a comment about completing a spruce beer, so I pinged him to see where he’d collected the spruce from. He’d harvested in the […]
gabriel nagmay (dot com) | Archive » Spruce Ale (version 3.0) Update Says:
[…] been about a week and a half since I brewed up the newest version of the Spruce Ale. The fermentation had slowed, meaning that it was time to rack the beer. Below, I will list some […]
gabriel nagmay (dot com) | Archive » Oh no, I have an infection! Says:
[…] Brew log […]
gabriel nagmay (dot com) | Archive » Spruce Gueuze Says:
[…] of my very favorite items ever brewed was the Spruce Tip ale that accidentally went sour. We’re going to try and recreate it, but also go a step further: […]