Spruce IPA

This IPA is high in clarity, with a dark gold color. Bold hops give prominent notes of citrus, pine, and resin. This beer offers big citrus and pine flavor up front, ending with a light malt sweetness and berry-like spruce character.

Ingredients
Alaskan Spruce IPA is made from glacier-fed water and features Chinook, Citra, and Denali hops.

Specifications
Original Gravity: 1.065
Color: 11 SRM

History
Alaskan Spruce IPA is brewed with Sitka spruce tips in a nod to the Sitka spruce trees that shade much of the Tongass National Forest and parts of Alaska. These evergreen conifers define the rugged coastline and untamed forests of Southeast Alaska, and have been used by locals for hundreds of years. Spruce tips are often used in cooking, with their tart, lemony flavor adding brightness and zest to recipes. There is a long, if little-known history of brewing with spruce tips: Captain Cook’s own journals mentioned adding spruce tips to his brews, both for flavor and to help his crew fight off scurvy. Sitka spruce tips are remarkably similar to noble hops, which are identified by low bitterness and high aromatic characteristics, and add citrus and pine flavor, as well as unexpected spruce and bubblegum character.

The Story Behind the Label
Snowy owls, with their unmistakable snow-white feathers, are native to the Arctic tundra and can be found gliding over the stark beauty of meadows and tussocks north of the Arctic Circle. In Southeast Alaska, they are known as “ghost owls”, as these pale, quiet owls appear suddenly and inexplicably in some winters but not in others. When outside of their tundra habitat, snowy owls perch and hunt from the thick canopy of Sitka spruce that shades the forest floor, swooping silently down to capture their prey. The bold, unexpected appearance of snowy owls aloft in the Tongass forest mirrors the bold hops and surprisingly tart, berry-like bubblegum character of Alaskan Spruce IPA.