Spruce Beer
Ingredients
Directions
Make the wort
Boil 12 gallons of water and mix in 12 pounds of treacle.
Pour the mixture into a cask and let it cool.
Ferment and finish
Add essence of spruce mixed with some of the liquor.
Stir in ½ pint of good yeast.
Leave the bung out for 3-4 days until fermentation is complete.
Add ½ ounce of isinglass and stir thoroughly.
Bung the cask and after 10 days, bottle into stone quart bottles and wire the corks.
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 the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol and carbonation, and sweetness in the finished beer.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, driving the fermentation.
- Isinglass
- Fining agent that helps clear the beer by drawing out suspended yeast and particles.
- Essence of spruce
- Supplies the characteristic resinous, aromatic flavour of the beer.
The step that matters
Leave the bung out during fermentation. Fermentation releases carbon dioxide that needs to escape; a sealed cask can build up pressure or let off-flavours develop. Waiting until fermentation is complete before bunging helps the beer finish cleanly.
“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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