Spruce Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mixture
Mix the sugar and essence of spruce with boiling water until thoroughly combined.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Ferment and bottle
Once cool, add the yeast and stir well.
Let it stand for one day.
After one day, bottle the mixture.
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
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast, which turns it into alcohol and carbon dioxide for fizz.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sweet liquid, producing alcohol and carbonation over the standing period.
- Essence of spruce
- Provides the characteristic resinous, piney aroma and flavour of the beer.
The step that matters
Add the yeast only once the mixture has cooled. Yeast is a living organism that is damaged or killed by very hot liquid. Adding it to boiling or hot mixture can stop fermentation, so the beer may never become fizzy or alcoholic.
“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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