Otta-Blog

Spruce Beer

March 16, 2014 - Recipes

I can hardly believe I found this recipe on the Laurier House website.  Laurier House is only a short walk from McGee's Inn.

My family used to make Spruce Beer (it is a non-alcoholic beverage). I'm sure we used the essence of spruce and not the actual spruce tree shoots. We used to put it in spring capped glass bottles.

We won't be doing this at McGee's Inn because I remember when our bottles exploded.

 It is especially good in the summer with a scoop of ice-cream.  My mom called it a Skeedoo.

Spruce Beer from Laurier House

Ingredients:
•7 oz | 200 g cleaned and washed spruce tree shoots
•2 quarts | 2 litres water
•1.5 oz | 40 g yeast
•1.5 oz | 40 g sugar

Directions:
•Acadians used rye, wheat, fir tree shoots, dandelions and hops as a base for beer. Water, yeast and sugar was added and the mixture was set aside to ferment for several days.

Credits:

Recipe tested by Chef David Fairbanks, Algonquin College School of Hospitality and Tourism

Recipe adapted from : Marielle Boudreau and Melvin Gallant, Le guide de la cuisine traditionnelle acadienne, Montréal/Moncton, Les Éditions Stanké et Les Éditions d’Acadie, 1980.