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Drink

Spruce Beer

A fermented beverage made with water, molasses or brown sugar, spruce essence, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Spruce Beer

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix cold and boiling water in a barrel.

  2. Add molasses or brown sugar and essence of spruce.

  3. Stir well and add yeast.

  4. Allow to ferment for two or three days.

  5. Bottle the mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Molasses or brown sugar
Provides sugar for the yeast to ferment into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and adds sweetness and flavour.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide that give the beer its character and fizz.
Essence of spruce
Provides the characteristic resinous, aromatic spruce flavour.

The step that matters

Allow to ferment for two or three days. Yeast needs time to convert sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Stopping early leaves the beer sweet and flat, while the fermentation time sets its strength and carbonation.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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