Beer and Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms and beer have a limited intrinsic association. There is a long and honorable tradition of spruce beer; in seafaring days, two problems associated with long sea journeys included scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency; and the difficulty of providing a source of drinking water that did not, in tropical latitudes, become rich in pathogenic microorganisms. Spruce foliage, including the tender young tips of growing foliage, is rich in vitamin C, and so a beer made from spruce could help to avert scurvy, though the benefits started to decline after a period of months. Due to the presence of alcohol and the use of hops in fermentation, beer is also a fairly hostile environment for growth of microbes, so it generally provided a less hazardous beverage than fresh water. This is particularly true when the hops dosage is heavy, and this accounted for both the invention and the name of India pale ale, which could remain reasonably drinkable throughout the long voyage from England to India. Nowadays, scurvy is unusual and there is little need for spruce beer, though it's still occasionally brewed for its distinctive flavor. India pale ale (IPA), on the other hand, is probably the most common form of craft beer currently being brewed (at least in North America), with literally hundreds of beers to choose from. Many of these beers have chosen natural imagery for their marketing purposes, and although cute furry animals seem to dominate the field, there are nonetheless many beers that have chosen names or images of conifers, and here is a museum of those. I've been collecting these images for quite some time and many of these beers can no longer be found, but at least their memory is here preserved.

Gallery of Beer

Naturally, these are presented in taxonomic sequence, although starting with Picea.

Pinaceae
Fiskarsin Metsän Henki Kuusenkerkkä-Ale (Picea abies)	Shorts Brewing, Spruce pilsner (Picea glauca)	Lawson's Vermont Spruce Tip IPA (Picea glauca or rubens)
Habitant, Bière d'épinette (Picea glauca or rubens)	Émile, Bière d'épinette (Picea glauca or rubens)	Yard's Tavern Spruce Ale (Picea glauca or rubens)
Harpoon, Vermont Spruce Tip Ale (Picea glauca or rubens)	49th State, Spruce Force (Picea sitchensis)	Siletz Brewing, Spruce Ale (Picea sitchensis)
White Pine (Pinus flexilis and P. longaeva)	Anchor, Christmas ale 2011 (Pinus longaeva)	Uinta, Bristlecone Brown Ale (Pinus longaeva)
Appalachian Mountain, Longleaf IPA (Pinus palustris)	Williams Bros., Scots Pine Ale (Pinus sylvestris)	Jack Pine, Pioneer Ale (Pinus banksiana)
Twisted Pine, American Amber Ale (Pinus)	Tioga-Sequoia, Sugar Pine Porter (Pinus lambertiana)	Tioga-Sequoia, Tamarack lager (sp. uncertain)
Araucariaceae and Podocarpaceae
4 Pines Brewing (Araucaria heterophylla)	Kauri Brewery, Kauri Pale Ale (Agathis australis)	Wigram Brewing - Captain Cook Spruce Beer (Dacrydium cupressinum)
Cupressaceae
Anchor Brewing, Christmas ale 1976 (Sequoiadendron)	Tioga-Sequoia Brewing, General Sherman IPA (Sequoiadendron)	Old Redwood Brewing Company (Sequoia)
Old Redwood, The Burl (Sequoia)	Redwood Curtain Brewing Company (Sequoia)	Northwoods Brewing, Red Cedar Red (Thuja plicata)
Juniper Brewing Company (Juniperus occidentalis)	Rogue Brewing, Juniper Pale Ale (Juniperus)	Faubourg Brewing, Golden Cypress Pale Ale (Taxodium distichum)
South Cypress Brewing (Taxodium distichum)	Twisted Cypress Brewing (Taxodium distichum)	Cypress Brewing (prob. Chamaecyparis thyoides)
Non-Conifers
Dancing Gnome, Ginkgo	Boomkwekeru, Ginkgo biloba	Palm Tree Brewing, Sago Palm Ale (Cycas revoluta)