Topic Archives: Spruce Tips
First Look: Allagash Fluxus 2014
Allagash Brewing Company (Portland, ME) is preparing the annual release of Fluxus. The beer is so named because the style changes each year. The 2014 Fluxus release features spruce tips and honey.
Allagash Fluxus is a beer that changes every year. It is also one of our Tribute Series beers. These are beers that benefit some of our local causes. Fluxus funds a pediatric nurses scholarship at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, right here in Portland. For more info, go to www.bbch.org
Allagash Fluxus usually arrives mid-late summer in all of the brewery’s distribution markets.
Style: (w/ Spruce Tips, Honey)
Availability: 750 ml bottles, Draft
Arrival: Summer, 2014
8.8% ABV
Short’s Experimental IPA Hits Bottles
Today (Dec 23rd) marks the first bottle release of Short’s Brew’s Juicy Tree IPA.
Juicy Tree is an experimental India Pale Ale made with blue spruce tips, juniper berries, and cranberries.
Big aromatics of piney evergreen and sweet berries tingle the senses. After some slightly tart and tangy flavors up front, a harmonious balance between pleasant fruit sweetness and bitter pine is reached. A sizable malt bill, ample hop additions, and the floral fruity qualities of American Ale yeast all contribute to the symmetry of this beer. The finish in Juicy Tree (7.5% ABV, 65 IBU) is laced with a resiny stickiness that flows naturally into a lasting bitterness.
Short’s Juicy Tree is only available to brewpub patrons.
Style: IPA (Spruce Tips, Juniper Berries, Cranberries)
Availability: 12oz Bottles
7.5% ABV, 65 IBU
Swamp Head Lloyd’s Christmas Ale
Swamp Head Lloyd’s Christmas Ale, brewed with spruce tips.
Sierra Nevada Knotty Wood
Black Husky Sproose Joose II IPA
Next Up In Goose Island’s Fulton & Wood: Gran GÃ¥s
Goose Island’s Fulton and Wood Series continues with Gran GÃ¥s, a European inspired recipe. Gran GÃ¥s translates to “spruce goose” thanks to spruce tips from Scandinavia that are added to the beer.
Gran Gas, literally translated ‘spruce goose’ in Swedish, was brewed with two-hundred-and-twenty pounds of hand-picked Spruce tips from Colorado, giving the beer a strong piney aroma with a hint of melon. The herbal character of the fresh spruce tips are complemented by the addition of a spicy Belgian yeast. A secondary fermentation with the lingonberries gives the beer a beautiful reddish-honey color that finishes tart and slightly sweet. With influences and ingredients from all over the globe, Gran Gas is truly an international drinking experience
Availability: Draft only
Read more: Fulton & Wood Series
Sixpoint Brews with Spruce Tips
This is Sixpoint’s Mad Scientists Series release #10 – Spruce Tip Ale, which is already hitting taps this summer. Sixpoint’s brewmaster Ian McConnell picked fresh spruce tips on vacation in Maine. A special recipe using crystal and pale malts was created to compliment the sprucy flavor.
How did it come out?
These fresh spruce tips lend a surge of brightness to the beer at first sip, balanced with a kick of bitterness from the hops. Its gentle aroma is slightly floral and fruity, and the finished beer has an IBU of 35, and ABV of 5.3%.