Yes, I did actually put pine/spruce clippings in the beer. During colonial times in what is now the US and Canada it was pretty commonplace for people to make a brew flavored with spruce using a mixture of molasses and water for wort. Search for "spruce beer recipe" and you can see some modern replica recipes if you're interested. And currently there are a few American, probably Canadian too, that make a beer using spruce as a flavor enhancer in addition to hops (I know for sure there is an Alaskan brewery doing this). But think about it, hops are usually compared to pine in flavor so it is really not all that ridiculous. Kinda more like thinking outside the box.You actually boiled pine needles and put the resultant liquid in your fermenter?
Is that correct?
I`m flabbergasted , no, shockedthat no one else has commented on that :
Seeing that I don't have access to hops as of yet and I like hoppy beers I figured: "why not give it a try?" I really don't have very high expectations though the pine/spruce needle tea I added didn't seem like it was going to meld very well. But you never know 'til you try it. At the very least I will know not to try that again!
Everything I saw about using evergreen needles in beer referred to using harvesting fresh "spruce" clippings in the spring and only those that had recently grown. I am no botanist and did some brief picture research of what a spruce tree looks like and did my best to find something that looked similar in the outskirts of Beijing. I dont know if what I used was spruce or even fresh growth from this spring. I do know that I got a lot of strange looks from locals watching me use scissors to cut the ends off pine trees though!
