Skip to main content
Drink

Spruce Beer

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Spruce Beer

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pour 8 gallons of cold water into a barrel.

  2. Add 8 gallons of boiling water, 12 pounds of molasses, and ½ pound of essence of spruce.

Ferment

  1. When the mixture cools, add ½ pint of good ale yeast.

  2. Stir well or roll the barrel, then leave it with the bung out for 2-3 days.

Bottle

  1. Bottle the liquor and wire the corks for use.

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 the yeast ferments, and much of the beer's sweetness and dark colour.
Ale yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbonation, which gives the beer its fizz.
Essence of spruce
Supplies the resinous, piney aroma and flavour that defines the beer.

The step that matters

Adding the yeast only once the mixture has cooled. Yeast is killed by high heat, so adding it to liquid that is still hot can stop fermentation before it starts. Cooling first keeps the yeast alive to work on the sugars.

“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.

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes