New Beer Weekend #75

Thanks for starting us out right. I plan to contribute a few over this weekend.

 

“A poem lovely as a tree.”

But how about a beer as lovely as a tree since it is brewed with tree stuff? With that tree stuff being Spruce tips.

Oh, and Merry Christmas everybody!!

I have homebrewed a number of Spruce Beers in the past using my freshly picked Blue Spruce tips from my next-door neighbor’s tree; alas that tree died a year+ ago.

I have posted about my homebrewed Spruce Beer in a past NBS thread:

“I decided to homebrew another batch of Spruce Ale which is essentially an American Pale Ale but I add fresh growth Blue Spruce tips (I picked these tips as the wort is boiling) at the end of boil; this is classically referred to as the aroma addition in the hopping schedule.

For those of you who are members of the American Homebrewers Association you can ‘read all about it’ in the May/June 2018 edition of Zymurgy magazine. In that article I discussed the Colonial American aspect of brewing with Spruce. For example, I included a Spruce beer recipe that Ben Franklin documented:

“Ways of Making Beer with Essence of Spruce:

For a Cask containing 80 bottles, take one pot of Essence [of spruce] and 13 Pounds of Molasses. - or the same amount of unrefined Loaf Sugar; mix them well together in 20 pints of hot Water: Stir together until they make a Foam, then pour it into the Cask you will then fill with Water: add a Pint of good Yeast, stir it well together and let it stand 2 or 3 Days to ferment, after which close the Cask, and after a few days it will be ready to be put into Bottles, that must be tightly corked. Leave them 10 or 12 Days in a cool Cellar, after which the Beer will be good to drink.”

I also discussed how Ben Franklin may have become familiar with brewing with Spruce via the earlier colonists to the New Sweden colony (present day Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware along the Delaware River). Some of the New Sweden colonists were from Finland and the Finns have a history of brewing beer using evergreen trees – Juniper while brewing Sahti beer.

Despite all of this history much of my brewing decisions for producing this beer is guesswork. I went through my decision-making process in the article but the sound bite answer is: I decided to use 4 ounces of Blue Spruce fresh growth for my 5 gallon batch and I added them at the end of boil (and steeped them for 30 minutes for this recent batch). I did decide to something a bit different for this second batch in that I solely picked the freshest of the fresh growth – tips that were less than 2 inches in length. In last year’s batch I decided (with no scientific reasoning) to utilize 25% large growth (4 inches in length), 50% medium growth (about 2 inches in length) and 25% small growth (about 1 inch in length). Needless to say but as with any agricultural product the harvest tastes are likely to change from year to year based upon the vagaries of weather conditions: amount of rain, how cold was the winter, etc.”

But today’s new beer is a new beer from Bell’s that is part of their holiday variety pack: Wild Spruce Chase – India Pale Ale with Spruce Tips. On the back of the bottle is a story:

“The Wild Spruce Chase is the annual chase for the perfect tree. There’s no need to measure this one. Brewed with real spruce tips, this IPA is full and fresh and fits perfectly.

I thought it would be fun to conduct a sort of virtual side-by-side tasting of this beer vs. a past tasting of my homebrewed Spruce beer. Let’s do the time warp again!

Wild Spruce Chase IPA served in my Spiegelau IPA glass:

Appearance

Wild Spruce Chase IPA: Golden colored with a white head.

Jack’s Spruce Beer: Golden amber colored with a white head.

Aroma

Wild Spruce Chase IPA: Notable aromas that are kinda/sorta piney (almost reminds me of Pine Sol a bit). There is also an aspect that reminds me of ‘perfumey’.

Jack’s Spruce Beer: The predominant aroma is a unique/intriguing aroma of herbal/spicy from the spruce tips*.

Taste:

Wild Spruce Chase IPA: The flavor follows the nose with flavors that are kinda/sorta piney. Perhaps also a hint of citrus as well. There is a notable bitterness to this beer.

Jack’s Spruce Beer: The flavor follows the nose with the unique/intriguing flavors of herbal/spicy provided by the spruce tips*. A firm bitterness.

Mouthfeel

Wild Spruce Chase IPA: Medium body with an off-dry finish.

Jack’s Spruce Beer: A medium mouthfeel and an off-dry finish.

Overall

Wild Spruce Chase IPA: Very Good! This beer does affirm “Spruce” in its flavor profile.

Jack’s Spruce Beer: My wife’s view of this batch: “Very, very good!”

It is my guess that Bell’s functionally added significantly more spruce tips (on a per unit of weight/volume) than I did for my homebrewed beer (or they had ‘better’ trees to utilize?). If Bell’s made a decision to provide this beer as a standalone product I would purchase a six-pack (or two or three).

* For my palate the aroma/flavor is not at all “piney” or “resiny” but something different altogether. In a nutshell it does not smell or taste like anything else that I have personally experienced.

Cheers!



@KOP_Beer_OUtlet @rotsaruch @RobH @zid @ReturnMikey @adrock314

P.S. Here is a photo of my neighbor Walt’s departed tree. He was quite sad when his tree died and he had to cut it down.

 

thanks for tagging me! Sounds delicious. Luckily I was able to procure a few singles and I’ll be trying it out soon

 

Merry Christmas, BA! This is the highest-rated NEIPA on our planet. Yesterday I planned on starting out today with a stout from my cellar. I did not have a very exciting beer lineup planned for this weekend. I left work, then my fortunes changed in a way I will likely never experience again. I decided to drive to the premier craft beer store in my area, and had possibly the best beer purchase of my life, then arrived home to discovered that Santa @azuelke desecrated my porch. He delivered gifts that originated from the very generous and thoughtful BA, @jrc1903. I barely slept last night waiting for this moment. This beer states that it is "pure juice." Canned 12/1/21. It looks like the sum of all tropical fruit. Reddish-orange, yellow-peach color. Beautiful. The smell is emotional. Citrus paradise. Grapefruit halves with sugar on it. Mango, like it was just sliced for you at a tropical resort. Orange, like you just picked it, then pierced it with a straw to drink. The flavor is citrus perfection. Grapefruit steals the show, flanked by mango and orange. This is the perfect flavor for a NEIPA. The mouthfeel is juicy, fluffy, thick, creamy, soothing, and full-bodied. The best fruit juice ever created, though it has every element that makes a great beer. Overall, this is the best NEIPA I have ever been able to experience. I cannot imagine drinking a better NEIPA, or a better beer, regardless of style. This beer deserves a perfect score. It requires me to re-evaluate all other beers that I have given a very high rating.

 

Good morning NBW
I missed the actual solstice day for this beer, so I'm drinking it now

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale

12oz can stamped 21 273 (about 3 months old) poured into a tulip glass at fridge temp 6.9% ABV. The beer pours opaque amber in color with khaki head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles leaving web like lacing. The aroma is mild with toffee and spice. The taste is semisweet toffee and burnt sugar caramel with significant spice impact. Almost like a pumpkinless pumpkin beer. Minimal bitterness with the spices balancing the malt. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, good.

I am not wowed by this beer, as I prefer the use of specialty malts and hops to create flavor.

Cheers all and enjoy your weekend!

 

Going to be a lot of activity here today as we prepare for company. Friends of our son will be dining with us and of course his mother wants things looking just right.
I am drinking one of the beers in my latest Beer Drop shipment, The Walrus, from Roadhouse Brewing, a hazy IPA with an ABV of 8.3%.
A hazy orange color with a big, fluffy white head and a lot of sticky lace.
Fruity aroma, primarily citrus.
Taste of orange, lemon, on a caramel base.
Pleasant, not at all hoppy.

 

Howdy all. Starting a bit early again today as I finish up some end of the year ticking. Starting with a Cream Ale that has vanilla bean added. A LOT of vanilla. It's pretty much a one-feature beer, this Mother Earth Cali Creamin'.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22610/87942/

 

Git to it ya slacker!

 

Another ticking beer from Mother Earth, the incredibly average BooKoo IPA:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/22610/114020/

 

Aww, you don't need to run out on my account. But, beer is always the right size........

 

I do wear a 3XL...... And, not just in beer.

 

New Beer #2
I was quite surprised to find a four pack of this locally. I've still never seen a Black Note on a shelf here at any price.

Bourbon Barrel Expedition

12oz bottled 11/17/2021 poured into a snifter at 47° Fahrenheit 13.4% ABV. The beer pours pitch black with zero light penetration and minimal light brown head. The head recedes to an irregular ring and leaves a few tiny spots of lacing. The aroma is moderate in strength featuring bourbon, dark chocolate, vanilla and coffee. The taste is bittersweet roasted malt with notes of dark chocolate, vanilla, deeply charred oak barrel, bourbon, coffee and chocolate fudge. Moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with just less than medium carbonation and a mostly dry finish. No alcohol presence in the aroma or taste, which is incredible for the ABV. Overall, excellent to world class. The balance is key. All the tastes are wonderfully integrated.

I was so impressed at the quality and value of Bell's 35th Anniversary Expedition that I bought a case, one 4 pack at a time. I won't buy that much of this, but I won't hesitate to buy another 4 pack at $29. Cheers all!

 

Nice early start to the weekend thanks @SawDog505

I’m hoping to join by this afternoon, beautiful day here 50 and sunny. Drinking outside on Christmas Eve, how could I not.

 

I had one of those like 3 years ago and still vividly remember how good it was. Haven’t seen it since, I wonder if they’ll distro to NJ this year.