Finally Bottling the Brew

Spruce Tip Ale Recipe

Spruce Tip Ale

The spruce trees are starting to put out new growth, and that means a chance to try making a new homebrew.

I haven't tried a spruce tip ale (either brewing it or drinking it), but I have read good things about them. It's supposed to be a very flavorful beer. It's also nice knowing that at least one ingredient came from near my house and was picked the day before it was used.

Here's the recipe used for a 5 gallon batch. I worked with an employee at Homebrew Exchange to create this recipe. It's a variation on a Pale Ale.

7 lb Light Malt Extract
8.0 oz Cystal Malt 20L
4.0 oz Roasted Barley
1.0 oz Cascade Hops (bittering)
1.0 oz Fuggles Hops (aromatic)
3.o oz Spruce Tips
Wyeast 1098 (British Ale)


Steep the grains at 160F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains and rinse with 2 qt hot water.
Add malt extract.
Bring to boil and add bittering hops and spruce tips.
Add aroma hops at last 2 minutes of boil.
Cool wort to around 75 F.
Add wort and water to fermenter to total 5 gallons.
Pitch yeast.

Beer!

My friends Nick and Courtney have been encouraging me to get into home brewing for a while. For my birthday they gave me a not-so-subtle hint/gift. It was a book on home brewing and a gift certificate to a Hombrew Exchange. So I took the hint and last month I went to the home brew shop, got a starter kit and ingredients to make a brown ale.

For my first batch, I wanted to do something easy. I worked with one of the employees at Homebrew Exchange to get the ingredients for "Naked Sunday Brown Ale." It's a recipe from The Joy of Homebrewing. I used a hopped malt extract, so I didn't have to worry about boiling hops or finishing hops. It came out great!