Right: Spruce beer awaits, while a mint julep lurks in the background.
I spent my memorial day weekend with friends in the rolling green hills of Akron, Ohio. Â Since several of them have been working on home brewing projects, I had the unique pleasure of sampling some home-brewed beers.
Of interest to you may be Mark’s Spruce Beer. Â Spruce beer is an old fashioned home brew of which there have been several attempts to recreate. Â Mark’s was deigned “not bad.” Â It was a little flat, but the taste was appealing. Â Made with brown sugar, it was rich like a gingerbread cookie, and had a flavor that staid on your tongue. Â I wasn’t a huge fan, but many people really liked it. Â Here is his recipe:Â
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Begin with small pot of water, approximately 60 fl oz. Â Bring to a
boil for 20 mins. Â Sanitize remaining tools.
Sugars will be 1 brown sugar cone (6oz) and approzimately 2.5oz pure
maple syrup.
Hops will be Northern Brewer pellets, .15oz for bittering, .1oz for flavoring.
#1728 scottish ale yeast, 1/2 pkt.
3/8 tsp spruce essence
Once water temp hit 170 deg, added ‘buckwheat packet’ to steep for 15
mins (don’t know if this will have any effect.) Â It was a tea bag
replaced with buckwheat flour to try to impart a grain flavor.
Bring back to boil, add bittering hops for 30 mins.
Add flavor hops for 10 mins to boil.
Add spruce essence for 5 mins to boil.
cool to 80 deg, slosh back and forth in fermenter.
Add yeast, cap.
-The hot break was seemingly endless, which was quite annoying. Â The
small batch makes for a lot of water loss, so I had to keep a lid on
it. Â But with a lid on it the pot foams up a lot, and then you take
the lid off and all the hops are stuck to the side of the pot. Â Then I
stir them back in and get another hot break, ad nauseum.
There was still a tremendous amount of fluid loss, probably 3/4 of the
pot boiled away. Â I used water that went through a pur filter and then
a britta pitcher to bring the volume full.
I used the scottish ale yeast because of its very forgiving
temperature range (55-75f.) Â Estimated beginning SG is around 1.05, I
expect a 70%
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Additionally, Mike brought some Midas’ Touch Beer, a commercially brewed beer made from a 2,700 year old recipe:
“It is an ancient Turkish recipe using the original ingredients from the 2700 year old drinking vessels discovered in the tomb of King Midas. Somewhere between wine & mead; this smooth, sweet, yet dry ale will please the Chardonnay of beer drinker alike. (from the Dogfish Brewery Official Site).”
Left: Mark and his Beard pour a spruce beer.
Midas’s Touch smelled a little like bud light. Â And sometimes a little like vomit. Â But despite that, the flavor was amazing complex. Â Brewed with honey, the flavor was similar to a mead, but still dark and rich like a stout ale. Â
We also discussed the Anchor Brewing Company’s Ninkasi beer, made from a 6,000 year old Sumerian recipe that is generally considered the oldest beer recipe. Â If you read cuneiform, you can make it yourself. Â Here’s the recipe:
Thanks to Mike and Mark for all the info, and all the beer.
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