Brewing Bliss: A Complete Guide to Making Spruce Beer

Spruce beer brings back fond memories from my childhood. Growing up in the vibrant city of Montreal, it seemed like every neighbor was brewing this delightful sparkling drink in their back yard. To make it, you need black spruce trees and they are widespread in Canada . ¹ With its unique flavor that evokes the essence of a Christmas tree, spruce beer is a fun and refreshing treat. While it’s called a “beer,” it’s more of a joyful homemade soda with a hint of alcohol—usually around 0.5%, so just enough to keep it light and bubbly!

In Quebec and Montreal, it is still a popular drink. It’s a taste that divides opinion—you either adore it or find it doesn’t quite hit the mark. There’s something special about its spicy flavor that makes it a standout, almost like ginger beer!

The recipe for today’s spruce beer is simple and delightful, featuring water, sugar, yeast, and aromatic black spruce tips. Everyone who crafts their own version has a little secret they guard closely—whether it’s a unique ingredient or a special mixing technique, the basics are always the same, and that’s part of the fun!

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to try making homemade sodas at home, I’ve got this fantastic spruce beer recipe from the talented chef Denise Cornellier. She’s known for her authentic approach, using fresh spruce tips to create a truly magical brew! Get ready to enjoy a taste of nature in every sip of this popular drink!

Spruce beer as an indigenous medicine in the history of North America

Native Americans helped the first colonists by providing a version of spruce beer (or, more precisely, a spruce tea) that provided them with vitamin C to heal from scurvy.

In 1536, the French explorer Jacques Cartier, exploring the St. Lawrence River, used the local natives (member of the Iroquois nation) knowledge to save his 110 men who were dying of scurvy. It was only through assistance from the Iroquois that any of them survived. The pine needles were boiled to make a tea that was later shown to contain 50 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams.^[3][4] This method of treating scurvy using evergreen-needle beverages was later picked up by the British Royal Navy, and spruce was regularly added to ship-brewed beer during eighteenth century explorations of the West Coast of North America^[5] and the wider Pacific, including New Zealand. Jane Austen, who had two brothers in the Royal Navy, refers to spruce beer in Chapter 40 of Emma.^{2[6]. 34}

It is one of the first documented uses of indigenous medicine in North America and likely drew attention to the high vitamin C content and other healthful properties of evergreen trees.

Traditional Spruce Beer Recipe

Recipe by Denise Cornellier in the tv show l’epicerie in 2004 ⁸

It’s definitely an easier one than the original recipe from the first American cookbook: the American Cookery book by Amelia Simmons!

Ingredients :

• 2 liters  (3.17 gallons) of warm water
• 24 juniper berries
• 2  teaspoons of fresh ginger 
• 8 – 16 ounces of fresh spruce tips (from early spring is better)
• 4 cups of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of champagne yeast, beer yeast, or ordinary yeast

Preparation :

• Before you begin, sanitize all of your brewing equipment. You can use a no-rinse sanitizer or hydrogen peroxide. Fill a clean container with one gallon of warm water, then add ½ of the No-Rinse Cleanser pack (about one tablespoon) and stir until dissolved. Once dissolved, the solution is ready to use. For more info on sanitizing, visit Mr. Beer’s website

Fermentation process

• Mix the water, ginger,  juniper berries, and spruce tips in a large pot. Bring to a boil and let the hot water simmer with the cover for an hour and a half.
• Strain twice with a cheesecloth in a big container.
• Let the liquid cool to room temperature.
• Take 2 cups of the liquid and add it to another container.
• Add half a cup of brown sugar and two teaspoons of yeast. 
• Mix well, and then put back the 2 cups in your remaining liquid.
• Add your remaining brown sugar and mix well.
• Transfer your mixture to a plastique tub covered with a cloth.
• Let it ferment for 1 to 5 days in a warm place with no draft.
• Do not move it,
• You can skim the top regularly

When to harvest the spruce tips?

Spruce tips are best harvested in the early or late spring when the warm weather arrives, and they are young and tender. During this time, the tips are bright green and have a soft, almost resinous texture, making them perfect for culinary uses or brewing spruce beer. Be sure to select only the freshest new growth and leave enough branches on the tree for its health and growth. Enjoy your foraging!

Before pouring the beer, carefully remove the top stopper bottles. There will be a lot of gas in the bottle, so be careful!

When you buy them in a restaurant, the spruce beer usually comes in a traditional small beer bottle. If you find some with a top stopper, it could be really fun to reproduce.

About the beer bottles

Once the fermentation is done, filter again with a cheesecloth. Cool the liquid and bottle it in a glass bottle top (flexi-cap), and don’t fill past 1 inch from the top. Refrigerate your bottles and Enjoy!

Spruce essence

Some old recipes called for spruce essence or spruce extract instead of fresh spruce tips.  I heard it could be an overwhelming taste, so I would not recommend it.

The complete joy of homebrewing

If you need more info about homebrewing and you want to do more homemade sodas and need littlehelp, I found this great old book: The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Charlie Papazian)

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing is the fundamental guide to understanding and making beer, from stouts, pale ale, lagers, and bitters to specialty beers and meads. Master brewer Charlie Papazian also includes the history and lore of beer, the science of brewing, and hints on how to create your own original pale ale.

Ancient Scandinavians believed that a good spruce beer offered strength in battle, enhanced fertility, and kept them healthy during long stretches at sea. By the 16th century, European explorers in North America were recording similar effects use of spruce to keep sailors scurvy-free. In Newfoundland, it became one of the most popular, readily available drinks around. Captain James Cook describes two of his men brewing the fragrant beer for the crew’s daily consumption in his 1784 book, Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The British navy also became dependent on the elixir as a cure and prevention for scurvy. The good spruce beer remained common until the end of the 1800s, when it faded into obscurity. ⁹

Video of how to make spruce beer

For a more visual impact, I am sharing a French Canadian video from CBC/Radio-Canada on youtube.

Let’s try it and make some memories

This spruce beer recipe is not just a drink recipe; it’s a delightful journey back to the heart of winter and early spring nostalgia! Bursting with a unique pine  flavor that captivates the senses, this charming beverage has woven itself into the fabric of Montreal life, bringing joy to those who first sip it. Like most of our French cuisine! The brewing process of your own spruce beer is an adventure full of creativity and fond memories. Plus, it’s thrilling to think of its rich history, where Native Americans shared this refreshing popular drink with early American colonists to keep them healthy. So why not gather some friends, roll up your sleeves, and dive into this fun brewing experience? Each bottle is a little piece of magic ready to brighten your day! Cheers to sprucy delights and the memories waiting to be made!

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1. (https://treecanada.ca/resources/canadas-arboreal-emblems/black-spruce/#:~:text=Black%20spruce%20is%20widespread%20in,in%20every%20province%20and%20territory.) ↩︎
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_beer#North_America_and_the_Pacific ↩︎
3. https://learn.kegerator.com/how-to-brew-beer-with-spruce/#:~:text=Common%20Species%20for%20Brewing:%20 ↩︎
4. ^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_beer#North_America_and_the_Pacific} ↩︎
5. (https://ici.radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/lepicerie/niveau2_5683.shtml#) ↩︎
6. https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/spruce-beer ↩︎