These spruce tips are freshly harvested, then immediately frozen and vacuum-packed. They are sustainably wild-harvested in Colorado and never dried or dehydrated. Colorado Blue Spruce and Engelmann Spruce.
Use spruce tips for brewing, tea making, culinary, herbal and countless other uses.
Spruce on Tap are adamant about making sure the trees are not over-harvested and that their products are only harvested in areas where the forest is thriving. They recognize that trees are the source of our fresh air and they are beautiful to boot, and strive to protect them. The spruce tips are harvested when they first begin to emerge from their brown, papery casings each spring. At this stage, they are very tender and have the brightest flavor with slight mint, pine, melon, and citrus notes.
Recommended usage: Smell the spruce tips when you open the bag. If it hits you like a blast of Pine Sol (only good smelling) then you can cut down on the tips. If they are a little mellow, then up the ante. Remember, wild harvested means there may be variance in potency.
Use 4 oz for a 21L/ 5 US gallon batch of beer.
For commercial breweries, use 1-2lbs per BBL of spruce, depending on the beer style, for subtle flavor and balance.
Add the spruce tips to the last 15 min of the boil (or less).
You can also use the dry hop technique with spruce. In doing this, the spruce is not pasteurized, which has risks, but it allows you to sample and monitor the effect of the spruce. Spruce is naturally antimicrobial and, when using the dry-hopping technique, it is going into an alcohol rich environment, so this is quite safe. Most people leave the spruce in the tank 3-5 days
