/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1141668
I think you might not get the same result. The description for Scots Pine Ale says that they boil twigs of pine in the wort, and make add fresh spruce shoots for a short infusion before fermentation. I think you might have a problem getting the flavor to stick by just putting them in the fermentor. Not to mention the risk of infection.

I'd try to boil some spruce twigs/needles/shoots in a bit of water, that would probably work better and it would sanitize them. Then pour the boiled spruce infusion through a cheesecloth to your fermentor. You can easily test the boil beforehand to see if it gives a taste you like before actually spending on the can. I'd use fresh spruce shoots, those probably give a better flavor than old ones. You can recognize the fresh shoots by their light color (see pic).

Some recipes for spruce shoot syrup say to boil them for 2-3 hours in sugar water, I'd test it with times ranging from 20 minutes to an hour to see if you can impart any flavor on the "tea".

Another way would be to put some shoots in some strong alcohol, like some 40-80% vodka and see if the flavor agents dissolve. Then just add that to your fermentor.

But I say go for it. Where I'm from they make syrup and home-made lemonade from fresh spruce shoots, so it can't be that hard.