Skip to main content
Drink

Spruce Beer, Common

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Spruce Beer, Common

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wort

  1. In a cask, combine 4 gallons of cold water with 4 gallons of boiling water.

  2. Add the molasses and essence of spruce to the mixture.

  3. When the liquid is just warm, stir in the yeast.

  4. Shake the barrel and leave it with the bung out for two days.

Bottle and store

  1. Bottle immediately using strong quart bottles, securing the corks tightly.

  2. Store the bottles in dry sawdust or sand.

  3. After two to three weeks, the beer will be ready to drink.

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Supplies sugars that the yeast ferments, producing carbonation and alcohol, and adds rich flavour.
Yeast
Ferments the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which makes the beer fizzy.
Essence of spruce
Provides the characteristic resinous, aromatic flavour of the beer.

The step that matters

Bottle immediately using strong quart bottles, securing the corks tightly.. Fermentation is still producing carbon dioxide, so bottles must be strong and tightly sealed to hold the pressure and keep the beer carbonated rather than flat or bursting.

“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