Wild Spruce Chase
Bell's Brewery - Eccentric Café & General Store

 

Pours orange/gold with a decent foamy head. Very little retention. Modest lacing.

Aromas of citrus, juniper, resin, and soapy/earthy hop notes.

Malts fairly forward initially, but orange peel oils and resin hops balance it well. Zero booze or hop burn.

Medium bodied. Decently carbonated. Modestly drying at the finish.

Solid across the board. Not spectacular, but not the novelty brew that I feared it might be. The spruce tips are present but not overwhelming, and the juniper notes are welcome.

I’m loving this beer !

Pours clear with a light piney note on the nose. The sip has a prominent juniper forward flavor, with a touch of orange peel sweetness. Lightly effervescent, with a lingering finish. I enjoyed this one tremendously.

12 oz bottle

pours a medium yellow golden color, white head. aroma is earthy, pine, spruce, grassy. Similar flavor, some bready malt flavor as well. Medium bitterness. Thin to medium bodied

Pours golden with a light but lively head of foam. Aroma is all pine, crisp and clear. Taste is sharply pine with a bright, citrus aftertaste. The feel is light, refreshing and sharply bitter with little sweetness.

 

Poured into a grip shaped goblet: color is gold, slight chill haze, head is off white with fine bubbles, head presents 1 finger thick and then dissipates to frothy top, head laces the glass sides well.

Smell is spruce tip upfront, with light citrus pith and moderate barley malt flavor of toast and light honey.

Taste is spruce tip forward mixed with lighter hop notes of pine and citrus pith, base barley malt notes of toast and light honey, some caramel.

Mouthfeel is moderate carbonation, moderate sweetness, moderate bitterness, lingering bite.

Overall a pleasant spruce tip IPA - expected clean base beer from Bell's with a big, forward spruce flavor and aroma.

 

Stumbled on a single of this at a Fresh Thyme grocery store recently. Didn’t even know this was a thing! Bottled 10/21/21.

Gorgeous beer. Pours a deep golden with a billowing white head. Smells of citrus and pine, but not as much pine as I’d like.

This tastes fantastic!! A huge blast of resiny, piney spruce right to the tastebuds. So good. Now I really wish I could’ve snagged this during the holidays. It’s standing right up there with Short’s Juicy Tree and Spruce Pils for me. Maybe even better. Really makes me “pine” for Christmas. Heyyyy-o…

Great job once again, Bell’s!

 

 

 

 

Pours an effervescent gold with 2 fingers of pearl colored head. Great head retention & lacing

S: Bready, faint medicinal notes

T: Medicinal Spruce, a little cakeyness, plenty of pine too up front. A lot of pinesol notes, a little medicinal flavor, dryness & some lemon notes as this warms. Finishes with pineyness & some sprucey note, plus a little dryness

MF: Medium body, restrained carbonation, skews bitter

Delivers on the featured flavor with good drinkability

pours a slightly hazy gold-with-amber-tinge body with a billowing fluffy cream colored froth head that has moderately high retention and leaves moderately low amount of thick sudsy ropes of lacing behind as it slowly settles to a murky cap with a big rocky halo

aroma is faint, but alludes to pine trees and easy citrus sweetness with a touch of caramel toffee malt

taste blows the aroma's allusions out of the water. a fully rounded display of lightly sweetened citrus with a bouquet of pine and spruce (bark 'n' all) comes through woody and earthy with a touch of sweetness.

the mouthfeel sings me back home, with a mid-level body and carbonation package that runs smooth and pillowy with a just-dry-enough finish and an aftertaste that fades from the earthy bitterness into the citrus sweet.

overall:
*chef's kiss*
it's like licking a christmas tree but the tree is beer and also there's a fire cackling in the background because of course it is. i'm not generally a christmas guy, and the holiday ended over a week ago, but this one has me belting out "it's beginning to look a lot like chrrrrrist-a-mas...eeeeeeeeevvverywhere youuu gooo" and also this brew kicks it at 6.5% so that might be part of why but MAN. dunno how I havent treated myself to this one before this year, but it'll be on my yearly MUST list from here on out.
4-point-nearly-5 points for Gryffindor. You're a wizard, Bells.

 

APPEARANCE: Clean copper with a medium off-white head and some lace.

NOSE: Pine and citrus hops. Subtle.

TASTE: Spruce tips forefront! Hops submerged a wee but some citrus comes through the mix. Tasty and unique nice IPA that performs better in small amounts, with the “Christmas tree” flavor probably limiting the audience. I liked it.

Pours a hazy orange. Thick foam. Hoppy aroma. Very interesting flavor. Big bitter hop body. Very prominent spruce flavor. Slight bitter finish. Bright and crisp. A really unique IPA.

 

In my opinion, this is a beer that people will either love or hate. That being said, I happen to absolutely love this beer. Spruce beer has been around in North America for hundreds of years, but it is not incredibly common these days. This beer from Bell's is both an homage to the past as well as a refreshing new take on the modern American IPA. As far as I know, it is only available in Bell's "Jingle Bell's" variety pack. I recommend tracking down one of these packs before the season comes to an end.