All About Beer Magazine

Beer Talk

Siletz Spruce Ale

Published March 2007, Volume 28, Number 1

• Stephen Beaumont

  I’ve had other ales flavored with spruce, and other beers from Siletz, and I’m afraid they’ve all been more successful than this. The aroma, though fragrant, is a jumble of resinous herbs (think rosemary and, well, spruce), toasted malt and raisin, while the body is a similarly confused blend of a sweetish, gently fruity front, aggressive and sharply bitter-sour middle, though still with an odd background sweetness, and resiny finish. This is a beer in search of a more properly defined character.

• Charlie Papazian

  Fresh, fruity and forest aroma. Amber hue of a comforting sunset. Spruce character is lively but not overwhelming and balanced in flavor with ale fruitiness and mild hop character. Aftertaste is mild, lingering and pleasant. They wrap and age certain kinds of expensively wonderful cheese with grape leaves. Wrap your ever-loving hands around a glass of this stuff and complement with aged cheddar, parmesan or other wonderful hard cheese. Wow. Well balanced and versatile. Worthy of attention. Unique.

• Garrett Oliver

  Hazy and mahogany-colored, the beer pours into the glass and the spruce aroma leaps out. The spruce blends with earthy malt aromatics and the blend has a primal, mushroomy quality. The palate seems sweet at first, but bitterness steps into the finish to keep it from cloying. A full-bodied and robustly flavored beer, not for the meek. It reminds meâ — fondly — of some Finnish sahtis. Venison anyone?