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Drink

Spruce Beer

A fermented beverage made from spruce needles, treacle, yeast, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Spruce Beer

Spruce Beer

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil half of the water.

  2. Pour the boiling water into a barrel with the other half of the water.

  3. Add the Essence of Spice and treacle.

  4. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Ferment and bottle

  1. Add the yeast and shake the cask well.

  2. Keep in a warm place for 2 days with the bung open.

  3. Once fermentation subsides, bottle it or put it in stone jars, well corked.

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

Treacle
Provides sugar that the yeast ferments into alcohol and carbon dioxide, adding body and sweetness.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide that gives the beer its character and fizz.
Essence of spice
Adds the aromatic spice flavour that defines the beer.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before adding the yeast. Yeast cells are killed by high heat, so adding yeast to boiling or very hot liquid stops fermentation before it starts. Cooling to room temperature keeps the yeast alive to work.

“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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