Pine Soda AKA Spruce Beer/Spruce Ale
My process:
• Harvest young bright-green spruce or fir tips in spring
• Roughly 1/2 gallon tips per gallon of water
• Simmer half the tips for flavor extraction
• Add around 3/4 cup sugar per gallon plus some maple syrup
• Let cool
• Add remaining fresh tips afterward to preserve wild yeasts and brighter aromatics
• Ferment under a breathable lid around 75–80°F
• Optional: add a small amount of Champagne yeast to speed fermentation
• Bottle once slightly tangy with light bubbling
The flavor lands somewhere between Sprite, crème soda, citrus, and vanilla.
A few important safety notes because bottle fermentation can absolutely become dangerous:
• DO NOT seal active fermentation in thin glass jars or weak bottles
• Pressure can build fast and bottles can explode hard enough to cause injury
• Swing-top beer bottles or plastic soda bottles are safer than random mason jars
• “Burp” bottles daily if actively carbonating
• Refrigerate once carbonation is where you want it because cold slows fermentation
• If bottles become rock hard, overpressurized, or foam aggressively when opened, release pressure immediately
Tree ID matters too:
Safe/common choices:
• Spruce
• Fir
• Pine (most species)
Avoid:
• Cedar
• Yew (highly toxic)
• Norfolk Island pine
• Any tree you cannot confidently identify
Not all evergreens are interchangeable. Some are medicinal, some are mildly irritating, and some are poisonous.
Also harvest lightly. Spring tips are new growth and overharvesting can stunt young trees.
