spruce beer

a fermented beverage made with spruce leaves and twigs, or an extract from them.

Origin of spruce beer

First recorded in 1490–1500

Barrels of cider and spruce-beer are running freely into the wooden canteens of the soldiers.

Old News |Nathaniel Hawthorne
On this last signal, a whole cloud of spruce-beer sellers started fiercely from under the piazzas.

Tom Cringle's Log |Michael Scott
The spruce-beer of America is generally made from the young shoots of this tree.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 4 |Various
At Washington we dined, and I drank some spruce-beer (for the first time in my life), and I found myself very unwell from it.

Early Western Travels 1748-1846, Volume X |Various

In two minutes, however, he relented in his own favour; and muttering something about spruce-beer, walked off.

Emma |Jane Austen

spruce beer

an alcoholic drink made of fermented molasses flavoured with spruce twigs and cones