flipDusky Sound Spruce Beer
Dusky Sound Spruce Beer
Why this dish? In 1773, anchored at Dusky Sound (New Zealand) with the Resolution, Cook had a beer brewed from rimu and manuka shoots and molasses, to give the crew a healthy, anti-scorbutic drink in the absence of barrel beer. He recorded the recipe in his journal.
A light, resinous beer, flavoured with young conifer shoots, sweetened with molasses and fermented. Bitter, lively, slightly tangy, it replaced the stagnant water from casks and, thanks to the fresh needles, helped keep scurvy at bay.
For want of beer in our barrels, I resolved to brew some on the very coast of this southern land. You boil the young shoots of these resinous trees of the country, mix in the molasses, and commit the whole to fermentation as you would a small beer of England. It pricks the palate and smells of the forest, I grant you, but it refreshes a man and keeps the disease at bay better than the stagnant water from a cask's bottom. My men drank it heartily, and that is what matters to a captain anxious to bring all his people home.
- •Rimu and manuka shoots (New Zealand conifers) — a great armful (flavour and anti-scorbutic principle)
- •Molasses — as much as you please (fermentable sugar)
- •Yeast / barm from previous beer — a little (ferment)
- •Water — in quantity (base)
Dusky Sound Spruce Beer
A light, resinous beer, flavoured with young conifer shoots, sweetened with molasses and fermented. Bitter, lively, slightly tangy, it replaced the stagnant water from casks and, thanks to the fresh needles, helped keep scurvy at bay.
Why this dish? In 1773, anchored at Dusky Sound (New Zealand) with the Resolution, Cook had a beer brewed from rimu and manuka shoots and molasses, to give the crew a healthy, anti-scorbutic drink in the absence of barrel beer. He recorded the recipe in his journal.
For want of beer in our barrels, I resolved to brew some on the very coast of this southern land. You boil the young shoots of these resinous trees of the country, mix in the molasses, and commit the whole to fermentation as you would a small beer of England. It pricks the palate and smells of the forest, I grant you, but it refreshes a man and keeps the disease at bay better than the stagnant water from a cask's bottom. My men drank it heartily, and that is what matters to a captain anxious to bring all his people home.
Ingredients (period version)
- Rimu and manuka shoots (New Zealand conifers) — a great armful (flavour and anti-scorbutic principle)
- Molasses — as much as you please (fermentable sugar)
- Yeast / barm from previous beer — a little (ferment)
- Water — in quantity (base)
Ingredients
- Spruce or fir shoots (young, tender green) or spruce essence — 2 large handfuls (or 1 tbsp essence) (resinous flavour)
- Molasses — 300 g (fermentable sugar)
- Brewer's or baker's yeast — 5 g (fermentation)
- Water — 4 L (base)
Method
- Boil the shoots in the water for 30 minutes to extract flavour and resin, then strain.
- Dissolve the molasses in the still-hot liquid, let cool to about 25 °C.
- Add the yeast, cover with a cloth, and let ferment for 2 to 3 days at room temperature.
- Bottle in airtight containers to carbonate, leaving some headspace.
- Store cool for 3 to 5 days, open with caution (gas), serve chilled.
- Note: very low-alcohol drink — the non-alcoholic version is obtained by reducing fermentation time and molasses.
How it was made : Cook describes in his journal the use of "spruce" (an English term then referring to various conifers) boiled with molasses and wort. Spruce beer was a known recipe among North Atlantic sailors; Cook simply adapted it to the local species encountered at the ends of the earth.
The contemporary twist : Served in an amber bottle with a young fir shoot placed on the cork — a "forest soda" that recalls the Resolution's anchorages.
Sources : James Cook, Journal of the Second Expedition (Resolution), entry for Dusky Sound, 1773 · J. C. Beaglehole (ed.), The Journals of Captain James Cook, vol. II
James Cook · Charactorium
