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Taste Notes

2016-09-15: FG 1.015 reached and sample tasted. First off, it is good. Earthy and herbal. A touch sweet but this may work well once carbonated. The spruce is there but is certainly different that Citka Spruce and Paul's Haine Brewing Spruce Ale, my ideal spruce ale. Less flowery, less evergreen. Again, more herbal. 2016-10-29: We lost another point by the time it was kegged for a FG of 1.014. While it isn't yet carbonated, the flat cold version is overly spruce flavored. It won't be bad but would be better at a lower level.

Notes

Based on Binnshire Dubbel, without candi sugar, and with the OG reduced to 1.055 using proportional grain reductions. There is such a crazy wide range of ideas of how much spruce you can use. This recipe is just a guess and may be on the heavy handed side, at least for a first try. My tips are young and include no wood or bark and I think this contributes to avoiding the resin and tar flavors. We will see, won't we. I am adding molases in plae of the dark candi syrup I removed. I also plan to use a medium mash. My intent is to have a full bodied non-dry ale with rich flavors to balance the spruce. I also see this as something more closely resembling the likely flavors of the 1700s. Note: Spruce tips were gathered on 2016-06-21 and were at prime. One quart, roughly, was collected and weighed 18.7 oz. 2016-08-13: Made starter with 3.75 oz DME. started with 1.6 L water and boiled down to roughly 1.3L. Would have liked to go done down to 1L but not in ten minutes. Cooled to 78°F and pitched healthy Wyeast British Ale Yeast. That comes back up to roughly 1.6L. 2016-08-31: First use of new wort line routing placing the RIMS ROcket between the pump and the flow meter. Works well but I had my own personal screw-ups. I makred the USB ports on the computer and I need to remember to read the flow meter from it's top surface. Perle hops have the perfect aroma for this! 120 minute boil to maximize the dark flavors, carmelization and Maillard reaction. Half the spruce tips at 60 minutes and half at 15 minutes. Pitched yeast at about 70°F. 2016-09-01: Temps rose to 78°F before I could apply correction. Placed in cool water bath at 16:00 hrs with a couple of wet wash clothes on top. Temp in room is 72°F which is how the other fermentors are reading. Back down to just over 70°F by 19:00 and still bubbling vigorously. Spruce scent more evident now although airlock smells were pleasant at 16:00 too. 22:00: stable temp between 70°F and 72°F while sitting in water bath. Bubbling well. Happy brewer! 2016-09-02, 17:45: Temp still roughly 70°F and bubbling slowed to every 4 or 5 seconds. I removed the fermentor from the bath. 2016-09-03 06:50: Temp remains at 70°F. Bubbling slow and steady at 11 seconds. 2016-09-04 09:45: Temp at 66°F. Turned room heat on to 68°F. 12:21: Temp back to 68°F. 2016-09-15: No bubbling at all for the last few days. FG=1.014@68.1 or 1.015. Darn if I am not a touch sweet again... 2016-09-18: Racking to secondary. SG= 1.014@67.8 or 1.015 2016-10-28: Back from more than a month in England and ready to keg. FG is 1.014 @ 64.2°F or 1.014. Fine. 2016-10-29: In keg and keezer to carbonate. Ready in about a week.