Conifer

THE LEGEND

When the deciduous trees surrender their leaves and stand skeletal against the November sky, the conifers remain. Douglas fir, Western red cedar, Sitka spruce, noble fir, Western hemlock. They form the defining canopy of the Pacific Northwest, a forest so vast and ancient that the first European explorers described it as endless. Some of these trees were saplings when the Roman Empire fell. They have watched civilizations rise and collapse and rise again, and they have not moved.

The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest built entire cultures around these trees. The Western red cedar, which the Haida call the "tree of life," provided the wood for longhouses, ocean-going canoes, and totem poles. Its bark was woven into clothing, baskets, and rope. Sitka spruce root was used for watertight hats and cooking vessels. Douglas fir pitch sealed wounds and waterproofed shelters. The forest was not a resource to be extracted. It was a relative, a provider, a living being that demanded reciprocity.

The spiritual significance of evergreens extends across nearly every northern culture. They are symbols of endurance, of life persisting through the killing season. The Roman Saturnalia decorated with evergreen boughs. Norse tradition held that evergreens were favored by Baldur, god of light. The Christmas tree itself descends from the medieval practice of bringing green branches indoors to remind the household that life would return.

Conifer is brewed as an ode to these ancient sentinels. A Winter IPA at 7.0% ABV, it is resinous, piney, and warming, built from the aromatic vocabulary of the forest itself. Each sip carries the sharp bite of cold air through old growth, the scent of crushed needles underfoot, the quiet assurance that green endures when all else goes bare. The frozen world will thaw. The conifers already know this. They have seen it happen ten thousand times.