Spruce Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the wort
Pour 4 gallons of cold water into a keg with one head removed.
Boil 4 gallons of water and add the boiled water to the keg.
Stir in 2 quarts of molasses and ⅓ cup of essence of spruce until well combined.
Ferment
Add 1 pint of yeast to the mixture and stir the mixture well.
Cover the keg.
Let the mixture sit for 2 days to ferment.
Bottle and store
Bottle the beer.
Store the bottles in sand in a cool place to prevent bursting.
Wait 2 to 3 days for the beer to be ready to drink.
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 sugar that yeast ferments, adding sweetness and body to the beer.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, carbonating the beer.
- Essence of spruce
- Supplies the characteristic resinous, aromatic flavor of the beer.
The step that matters
Bottling and storing the beer. Fermentation is still producing carbon dioxide after bottling. Storing the bottles in a cool place slows fermentation, and keeping them in sand helps contain pressure if a bottle bursts.
“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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