Many of my maternal grandmother's family lived in Canada. Once a year, one of her sister's would come visit and bring memere a six pack of "bierre dipinette" I'm sure I'm slaughtering the spelling. In English, she called it spruce beer, althought it wasn't a beer, it was a soft drink. Memere would let me have one bottle, because she knew I loved it as much as she did. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Don't know what made me think about this - it just popped into my head.

love old memories hope someone can help

found a recipe for 18th Century version of Spruce beer: http://beerrecipes.blogspot.com/2007...ruce-beer.html

and a facebook page for it: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Biere-...e/179283110022

last bit - from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruce_beer
In the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Newfoundland, where it is known in French as bière d'épinette, spruce beer may refer to either an artificially flavored non-alcoholic carbonated soft drink, or to genuine spruce beer

Wow - this takes me back! We used to be able to buy spruce beer (really a soft drink like root beer) at the corner shops but not any more. I think some people probably still make it for their own use but it isn't made for the public consumption anymore.

I would imagine your grandmother was French-Canadian if she was called "memere". Here she'd probably be "nan". ;-)

yes, she was French-Canadian. Growing up (in New England) I spoke as much French as I did English. Even went to an elementary school where French taught from Kindergarten on. Unfortunately, I don't remember much - you don't use it, you lose it.

hubby is from PA/NY border area--old familiar drink for him was "birch beer"--again, similar to root beer, but different in flavor. a nephew once brought a case of it to him, and he was in 7th heaven!

fun memories!

Yep, we can still get birch beer occasionally. We used to go in to the corner store and say "Give me a birch beer and a raisin square."