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To Make Spruce Beer

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

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

To Make Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine boiling and cold water in a tub or cask.

  2. Add molasses and essence of spruce; stir thoroughly.

  3. Mix in the yeast.

  4. Let it sit in a warm place until fermentation slows, about 48 hours.

  5. Bottle the mixture; it will be ready to use in 2 days.

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
Provides the sugar that yeast ferments, and much of the beer's dark, sweet flavour.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into carbonation and alcohol, making the drink fizzy.
Essence of spruce
Supplies the characteristic resinous, aromatic spruce flavour.

The step that matters

Bottling at the right time. Bottling before fermentation has slowed can leave too much active yeast and sugar, so bottles may build excess pressure and burst. Waiting until fermentation slows keeps carbonation controlled.

“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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