There is a persistent myth that Spruce was added to beer in lieu of hops.  Let me set the record straight, Spruce Beer is NOT Gruit! 

Gruit ale is an herbed beer, originating in the Low Countries (Netherlands, Flanders, and Rhineland Germany) and common in the 10th to 15th centuries.  It was largely displaced by the new hopped beer from northern Germany at the beginning of the 14th century and by the 18^th Century, gruit was something of a folklore, a witch’s brew, but not something respectable people drank. 

Gruit was a combination of a grain and preserving herbs (but not hops).  Think of it as sort of a precursor to modern beer.  In order to keep gruit ale longer it was brewed with a relative high level of alcohol, and the wort was strengthened by adding a syrup-like grain extract, honey, or even sugar. A combination of herbs was also used including bog myrtle (Myrica gale) or marsh rosemary (Ledum palustre), laserwort (Laserpitium siler), laurel berries (Laurus nobilis), sage (Salvia officinalis) and yarrow (Achillea millefolium), anise (Pimpinella anisum), juniper (Juniperus communis) and caraway (Carvum carvi).  Beer brewed with hops requires less grain (or other sugars) and stays good for much longer so gruit was quicky displaced by hopped beer. 

At first, this new hopped beer was opposed by the Catholic Church because abbeys saw their income much of which was derived from sales of grains, decline.  The bishop of Utrecht complained in 1374 about the “Novus modus fermentandi cerviciam” (the new way to brew beer), was a both creating a dependency upon produce of the heretical German states (where hops were grown) but also impacting his pocket book.  Because the local churches and governments benefited from gruit and not from the trade of hopped beer, we see the early spread of hopped beer delayed.  In the city of Zwolle, bishop Frederik of Blankenheim, wrote of his intention to renew their gruitrecht: “hoppenbyer, dat men gemeenlike drynket in onssen

lande, daer onse gruyten … seer mede afgegaen, ende vernyelt syn.”(hopped beer which one

generally, drinks in our land, did our gruit … much decline, and make broken) but eventually economics of brewing prevailed and gruit was reduced to as a medicinal herbal drought status.

Gruit beer continues in medical circles as a herbal ale with an emphasis on the pharmaceutical effects of those herbs.  Not only do these herbs have bittering agents which makes them more or less reliably antiseptic, they also contain substances that are mildly narcotic, psychotropic, or inebriating; resulting in enhanced intoxication.  Drinkers of gruit ale experienced euphoria and enhanced sexual drive.  This greatly troubled the protestant Church and eventually lead to the outlawing of gruit in many countries.  One of the arguments of the Protestants had against Catholicism was Catholic self-indulgence: in food, drink, and lavish life style. And it was this Protestant outrage that was the genesis of the temperance movement and gruit ales with their psychotropic properties were an early target. 

The provincial laws of Bavaria, imposed severe penalties on anyone brewing ale with herbs and seeds not normally used for ale. Similar laws were passed in Holstein where use of bog myrtle was expressly forbidden together with other ‘unhealthy material.’  Perhaps the most famous edict against gruit is Reinheitsgebot (1516) with expressly restricts beer making to only 3 ingredients – water, barley, and hops.  Other herbs were expressly prohibited. 

So, no while the English were less extreme in their definition of good beer, using spruce tips as an alternative to hops is a dangerous slope and one that no respectable brewer would follow.  Spruce Ale IS brewed for its medicinal properties but hops are added, if for no other reason that to satisfy the powers that regulate beer that this is not gruit.

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