Spruce beer is an old new England beer…it came about because the colonists didn’t have the traditional hops to flavor their beer. Instead, they used the new buds of the spruce tree, which you can gather in the spring.
Last year, I brewed a batch of spruce beer (using the Charly Papazian recipe)-I gathered the spruce buds from trees in a nearby forest park. The results were mixed:
I LIKED the beer, althoughit had a definite tang toit. My Dad pronounced it undrinkable (“It tastes like turpentine”!). Other people that I gave bottles to either liked it or hated it.
How strong should the spruce flavor be? Perhaps I bolied the brew too long?
What has you beer been like?
That’s one thing I never pined for. Maybe if I wood get really board, I’d try it.
Am I the only one who thought this would be a joke about “Bush Beer?”
I haven’t made the Spruce Beer that you mention. I did brew with spruce essence a nubmer of years ago though. Once was enough. I found the flavor repellant.
I’ve brewed it once, for a contest. I cut the spruce extract down to a minimum, and added spices. It was…interesting. 
I’ve heard of people using spruce in actual beer, as well as people making “spruce beer” soda along the lines of root beer. Regarding the latter, I tried to order some once after reading a reviewer who said that it was the worst soda he had ever tasted. Unfortunately, the maker appeared to have stopped offering it.
Mystic Seaport ( www.bevnet.com/reviews/mysticseaport/ ) used to make a Spruce Beer, sold alongside its Birch and Root varieties. Seeing as I like Root Beet and love Birch Beer, I gave it a shot for $0.99 at Central Market several years ago. It was freakin’ terrible; by far the nastiest soda I’ve ever had. It tasted like Pine-Sol smells. It comepletely voided the [tree]+beer=yum equation. I can only hope that fermentation makes it suck at least somewhat less.
Hey, that’s it! I went to the Mystic Seaport gift shop at the time I read the article and there was no spruce beer on offer. My loss.