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Drink

Spruce Beer

A fermented beverage made from spruce, treacle, water, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Spruce Beer

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the wort

  1. Mix the spruce and treacle in a large container.

  2. Stir in 3 gallons of water and let it stand for 30 minutes.

  3. Add 3 to 4 more gallons of water and the yeast, then stir well.

  4. Pour the mixture into a 10-gallon cask and fill it up with water.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Allow it to ferment until it is clear.

  2. Bottle the beer and lay the bottles on their sides for 3 to 4 days.

  3. Afterward, stand the bottles up for another 3 to 4 days before serving.

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

Spruce
Supplies the resinous, aromatic flavour that defines the beer.
Treacle
Provides fermentable sugars that feed the yeast and give body and sweetness.
Yeast
Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbonation during fermentation.

The step that matters

Let the beer ferment until it is clear. Fermentation must be complete before bottling, because yeast still active in the bottles can build excess pressure and cause them to burst.

“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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