Before diesel-fueled cargo ships sloshed their way across the world's oceans, beer dictated the distance the Western world could travel by sea. Enough ale, and you'd make it where you wanted to go.

Everyone from the Vikings to 18th century British sailors swore that a pint of spruce beer kept away scurvy. While that may not have really... The holidays are finally wrapping up. So after you repack ...

Piney ales are on the rise, but brewers' use of spruce is evergreen. Even in a craft industry ruled by IPAs, Sculpin IPA from San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing Company is a legendary beer, often cited ...

If Joe Hitselberger had his way, he'd make only one beer at Wolf Tree Brewery. "Like Orval," he says. "They just make one beer." The beer he'd make? It's nothing like Orval, the legendary Belgian ...

First developed by Canada’s indigenous peoples, spruce beer was commonly used to prevent scurvy, even by French navigator Jacques Cartier. Today, it continues to have a following. Strange Brews ...

It’s that time of year when sad, discarded Christmas trees start to pile up in the streets. In 2011, the United States spent $1.07 billion on more than 30 million Christmas trees, and at the end of ...

Bright green tips emerging now on Juneau’s spruce trees kept alive sailors searching for a safer route between Europe and the Orient. Spruce tip beer was the secret to survival. It played a key role ...

In 1803 Reverend Clark Brown wrote this about the town of Catskill: “At the south-west part of the town, black spruce grows in abundance, from which a large quantity of the essence is extracted for ...

It’s a centuries-old acquired taste, but those who like spruce-beer soda like it a lot Spruce ice cream, spruce syrup and spruce-tip salads have been hot culinary items the past few years, but ...

Chris Hannah, an accomplished bartender from New Orleans, was halfway up a spruce tree in northern Maine, picking at gobs of dried resin, while Misty Kalkofen—also a very good bartender, based in ...