Brew Day: Spruce Ale

Inspired by the Alaskan Winter Ale from my Winter Beer Month challenge, as well as having an obvious need to dispose of an expired Christmas tree, experimental brewing with spruce was a necessity.  Unbeknownst to this hophead, spruce was used before hops to bitter beer hundreds of years ago.  In fact, Benjamin Franklin's own beer recipe featured spruce tips and molasses, in lieu of hops and barley.  With the help of some able bodied future beer lovers, I started this creation with plenty of greenery.

Since molasses once made the beers of our founding fathers, I figured that doing a partial mash with the addition of LME would be the way to go.  The aroma of this evergreen would need to pair well with a piney hop: enter Mr. Simcoe.  Using the grain bill of my IPA with a scaled back hopping schedule, Spruceski Brewski was born.

Spruceski Brewski 
Batch size: 10 gallons

Grains
3 lbs Crystal 60L
2 lbs CaraPils
2 lbs Wheat
Mash at 152 degrees for 30 minutes

20 lbs pale LME

Boil
60 min: 2 oz Simcoe
30 min: 2 oz Simcoe
15 min: Irish Moss
10 min: 20 oz of spruce 
0 min: 2 oz Simcoe

Yeast
(3) Danstar American West Coast Dry 97 yeast packets

OG: 1073

Helpful hints:
* Make sure to smell all the evergreens that you use.  If you don't like the smell, you won't like the taste.
* Put all the needles and branches in a large mesh bag for the boil.  It makes cleanup a lot easier.
* For a lower octane beer, decrease LME by 6 lbs and only use two yeast packets.