Juniper Scottish 70/-

Tryin to throw together a decent specialty beer, goin to try a scottish 70/- with juniper and caraway. wondering if anyone ever brewed with juniper? i was planning on boiling it for like 5-10 minutes, same with the seeds, should i crush the juniper berries or leave them whole? and is 1 oz going to be enough for a whole 5 gallon batch you think? any unput would be great, probably goin to be brewing this tonight, and slacked on the reasearch. thanks :rockin:

well due to time issues, went ahead and just kinda wung it. the cooled wort smells delicious though. i added the carraway seed at 5 minutes, and crushed the berries in a bit of hotwater and added them at like the 30 second mark. can smell both parts in the finished wort. if it comes out good ill post up the recipe. still interested if anyone else uses either of these ingredients in beer?

updates?????

came out alright. added far too much caraway seed, and it really overpowered the beer. it has a strong minty flavor, kinda like menthol cough drops. i ended up tossin the batch, couldnt take it after a few pints. if i ever tweak the recipe around a bit, ill re post the resulkts

no_borders said:

came out alright. added far too much caraway seed, and it really overpowered the beer. it has a strong minty flavor, kinda like menthol cough drops. i ended up tossin the batch, couldnt take it after a few pints. if i ever tweak the recipe around a bit, ill re post the resulkts

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that's a shame. i brewed a juniper ale last weekend with Golden Promise malt, some cara-pils, wheat malt and used cascade, citra, goldings, and 4oz of fresh smashed juniper berries. i used juniper branches during the mash and dry hopped 2 nights ago with smashed berries. So far it's going well.

yea keep me updated for sure, id like to do a juniper beer again, just not sure how to quite go about it, or what stlye beer would go well with it. im a huge fan of gin and the juniper flavor, and would love to impar that nicely to a good brew

no_borders said:

yea keep me updated for sure, id like to do a juniper beer again, just not sure how to quite go about it, or what stlye beer would go well with it. im a huge fan of gin and the juniper flavor, and would love to impar that nicely to a good brew

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will do. one thing i noticed with mine, and wondered about with yours, is that mine is extremely hazy. It's cleared up some, but looked pretty murky at last check. Did yours clear up at all?

i didnt find mine very hazy, i use a tablespoon of irish moss for 10-15 min and dont ever really have too many problems with haze. but then again, im not sure if my beer would clear too much once it got poured out on the lawn :cross:

no_borders said:

i didnt find mine very hazy, i use a tablespoon of irish moss for 10-15 min and dont ever really have too many problems with haze. but then again, im not sure if my beer would clear too much once it got poured out on the lawn :cross:

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that is indeed a bummer. mine's clearing up nicely now. It was still actively fermenting and is still doing so. I have very high hopes for mine. Last reading i tested and sampled smelled like fresh peaches. i can't wait. one week until my estimated bottling day.

Updates?

I am thinking about adding some vodka that has been soaking juniper berries into a wheat beer that I plan on making. Anyone tried this? It smells strong at this point, so I think that it would be a good way of adding the flavor to a beer.

my next attempt at using juniper may be in a spruce beer, but i want to play around with the spruce first, and see what type of impact it will have then decide whether or not i think the juniper will work with it. sometimes i jump in to fast and the beer ends up down the drain, and id like to avoid that this time ha ha