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Spruce Beer

A fermented beverage made with hops, sassafras, spruce, ginger, pimento, brown sugar, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Spruce Beer

Why it works: Sugar and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. Boil hops and sassafras in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and add brown sugar, essence of spruce, essence of ginger, and ground pimento.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a cask and let it cool.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Add yeast and let it stand for 24 hours.

  2. Filter the mixture and bottle it.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Hops + gingertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Hops + sugartop 43% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the sugars that yeast ferments into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbonation in the beer.
Hops
Adds bitterness that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Sassafras chips
Adds the characteristic root-beer aroma and flavour to the brew.
Essence of spruce
Adds the resinous, piney flavour that defines this spruce beer.

The step that matters

Let the cooled mixture stand with yeast for 24 hours. Yeast must be added only after the liquid has cooled; heat would kill it. Fermentation then converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which gives the beer its body and fizz.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (hops, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against hops, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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