Silver Spruce Brewing’s Altbier

Bottoms Up

By Lynda Wheatley | Feb. 22, 2020

Last week, Silver Spruce Brewing’s owners and husband-wife brewers made a big announcement: The brewery they opened on Traverse City’s Eighth Street in June 2018 — just one year before the street was closed for construction for five months (the height of the tourist season, no less) — is expanding. That the new, not-downtown brewery not only weathered the long street closure but is about to double in size is testament to what’s pouring out of Silver Spruce’s taps. Our favorite? The one they tapped right after the expansion hit the news: Altbier, their classic German-style beer that’s earned a local reputation for appealing even to folks who think they don’t like beer. It’s cold fermented, meaning the yeasts work slowly and steadily, creating a complex combo of flavor compounds — notes of malt and toffee here — and a low (4.2%) ABV. Despite its bright amber hue, Altbier is smooth, creamy, and malty, and a worthwhile winter sipper with which to raise your glass and toast the brewery’s good news. Find Silver Spruce Brewing inside the soon-to-be-former Family Video space at 439 E. Eighth St. (231) 252-3552, silversprucebrewing.com.