Emerald Mastodon - Spruce Sake

October 2019

Inspired by spruce beers and ice creams made in the north west. I was interested in exploring how this ingredient could accentuate varying sake flavors. I used Calrose rice, a combination of Wyeast sake yeast and dry 901, and Rocky Mountain spruce tips. The spruce tips were introduced in several instances during the brewing process. I added them to the initial rice steaming process, again during secondary fermentation, and finally as a 24 hour tea. It fermented a bit harder than expected (good yeast) and went a bit high on the abv, but turned out well. I was hoping to bring out some of the lemongrass flavors, but there was less than I would have liked, but first tries are all about learning. I’ll definitely try this one again. 3/5

July 2023

Pretty stoked for how this latest batch of #sprucetip #sake turned out. I took some inspiration from Benjamin Franklin’s spruce tip beer recipe and made a tea of spruce tips and lemon to use for the water base. That combined with the @bootlegbiology Olso #yeast it pushed some nice citrus qualities forward. I think this recipe will be the final incarnation of this one.