Spruce up your ale
Hop shortage, hop shortage, hop shortage. You'll have heard a lot about that recently. Brewers across the world are tearing their hair out. If things get really desperate, remember that hops aren't the only additive you can use to add bitterness and flavour to ales. What about spruce?
The buds, needles and sap from spruce trees have long been used in ale, particularly in the further reaches of the Northern Hemisphere, where hops are scarce. They were brewing spruce ale on the HMS Resolution during Cook's second, southerly voyage. There's ample documentary evidence that it was popular across Britain in Georgian times.
Heather Ales Alba, from the Williams Brothers in Alloa, Scotland is a modern example. At 7.5% abv it's a beast of a brew, a hearty backdrop for an interesting experiment. I first tried it a few months ago, and was impressed by the strong, resinous flavours and the funky complexity. If you're a fan of pine flavours in beer, you should enjoy this. You can pick it up from specialist beer shops or from Oddbins.
Perhaps those who fear for their Double IPAs could brew a Double Imperial Spruce Ale instead? They might struggle to cram a whole tree in the mash tun, though.
9 comments:
I have a feeling that Alaskan Ales produce a spruce pined beer, although to my knowledge they no longer export to the UK. Worth trying if you find some though.
why would anyone want to drink a tree?
I've tried that Alaskan beer, and it was OK - not as good as their Smoked Porter, and probably all a bit moot since none appears to be coming over any more.
I've tried beers from Hitachino with resinous, piney characters, but then, on the other hand, I've also tried gruits where I didn't know whether to drink 'em or wash (what's left of) my hair... ;-)
James Cook was the first to brew on these fair islands. Manuka and Kanuka were used which are relatives of Spruce. We know have 2 beers which vagely attempt to recreate his make shift brew. One of which the Captain Cooker from the Mussel Inn brewpub in Golden Bay is being contract brewed in Belgium now. Its a strange old world.
I used to be something of a fan of heather ale, where the heather is used in place of the hops. Fraoch, I think it is called.
Ricolas, Fraoch is made by William Bros. too. To be honest I wasn't that struck on it.
One of the finest pints I've ever tried was the first pint of Fraoch from a freshly tapped cask at the brewery. Mind you it was of course free, and one of the golden rules of drinking (well, one of my golden rules of drinking) is that free beer always tastes better.
I can quite understand that, Stonch. I was never overly keen on the bottled stuff. Nice enough suppose, but nothing to write home about.
I first had it on draught in 1993 in Glencoe when Stuart the genius barman got it in early in it's production. We all tried it somewhat sceptically, and it really grew on us - he had taken the care to keep it properly.
thank you nice sharing
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