the green shoots at the tips of the branches of evergreens, can be harvested in spring and used as a flavoring in beer. To the taste they are far less resinous than the more mature needles and twigs (although these can be used as well, to harsher effect) and even somewhat citrusy. When boiled in water they can provide either simple flavoring to the brewing liquor or, if further concentrated, an essence to be added to the ferment, as appears in recipes for spruce and pine ales dating as far back as the 17th century. It is reported that in 1769 when Captain James Cook landed in New Zealand, it was with beer on board made with a mash of spruce tips, a beverage with an added antiscorbutic element.

Like many beers brewed with ingredients alternative to imported British malt and hops, evergreen-flavored beers were common in colonial American brewing, often combining with molasses as the primary fermentable. See brewing in colonial america.

Benjamin Franklin brought a recipe for a spruce beer back home after his stint at the French court following the War of Independence, and another was recorded in the journal of General Jeffrey Amherst. Mentions are many throughout history, and across a broad geography, of beers made with the tips of pine, fir, and spruce.

Spruce beers in particular appear from time to time in the repertoires of American craft brewers. Anchor Brewing Company’s “Our Special Ale,” for example, brewed for the Christmas season each year to slightly different specifications, sometimes contains spruce.