spruce beer

American  

noun

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

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spruce beer British  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of spruce beer

First recorded in 1490–1500

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spruce beer

Native Americans brewed spruce beer long before Europeans arrived on the scene.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 29, 2015

A hurricane of energy, built like a barrel of spruce beer, Putnam quickly won the rank of general during the disorganized fighting before Washington took command.

From Time Magazine Archive

July 4th.—A very hot, bright, sunny day; town much thronged; booths on the Common, selling gingerbread, sugar-plums, and confectionery, spruce beer, lemonade.

From Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 1 by Hawthorne, Nathaniel

If there were any seeds of the scurvy, in either ship, these berries, and the use of spruce beer, which they had to drink every other day, effectually eradicated them.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16 by Kerr, Robert

I can give you a comfortable lodging, and wholesome good fresh provisions, excellent fish and good spruce beer, the growth and manufacture of our own Province.

From The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution by Stark, James H.