Can I culture yeast from Juniper Berries?

winterparkmg said:

. . . . Do you know the variety of the berries you chose?

Colo, I'm going back to Golden two weeks from now for a friend's wedding. You fancy visitors wherever you are? This looks worth a trip to see your setup!

~William

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Mine are either Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma) or Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) I speculate the later due to smaller berries, but am unsure.

You'd be more than welcome to come by, I work shift work and I'll be off shooting wapiti in the lips with my muzzleloader and snagging salmon through the vital inards from 09/11 through 09/19. I am on the western slope in Montrose county and I always have some sort of gruel to share and savor.:rockin:

Great stuff this is why we brew

My Juniper Ale fermentation went gangbusters and now, 6 days later, has fully attenuated.

OG: 1.042
FG: 1.005

I am picking up the slightest clove taste from this yeast. That's a big surprise. I think for novelty sake I'll take some more juniper (from same bush), toast and grind, and make a tea and add to this beer. Juniper Ale.

COLObrewer, thank you so much for pushing me to try this. Very cool.

passedpawn said:

My Juniper Ale fermentation went gangbusters and now, 6 days later, has fully attenuated.

OG: 1.042
FG: 1.005

I am picking up the slightest clove taste from this yeast. That's a big surprise. I think for novelty sake I'll take some more juniper (from same bush), toast and grind, and make a tea and add to this beer. Juniper Ale. .

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That is awesome, I'm glad it worked out. Was that close to your expected FG? How did it flocculate?

Our sweet stout seems to be taking a while with the second gen. yeast.

COLObrewer said:

How did it flocculate?

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The sample I took had some yeast cloudiness, so I'd say it is does not floc well. I'll be cold-crashing it with a lager tomorrow, so I am sure that will drop the yeast out. I'll also gelatin it. I'm sure I'll get it clear.

Again, I got a bit of cloves which was a pleasant surprise. No reason to think we have the same yeast strain (you and I).

This whole idea is fun, but fits more into Mother Earth News or the excellent Firefox survival books more than this forum of anal beer brewers. I might try one more beer on top of the yeast cake, but then I probably won't do it again, but I'm glad I did it this time!

I am picking up the slightest clove taste from this yeast.

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Good enough for a wheat yeast?

JohnMc said:

Good enough for a wheat yeast?

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Dunno. 6-day old beer. I'll reserve judgement until it is a bottle of conditioned beer. As I'm sure you're aware, some of these flavors go away as the yeast continues to clean up the intermediate products created during early fermentation.

It was a smaller but similar flavor to I get with 3068. I'll get another taste in a couple of weeks when I'm done lagering another beer in there. Then I'll bottle: 2 weeks there. I'll do a full review in one month. I'm not expecting much, but if it makes beer then that's cool.

passedpawn said:

. . . . This whole idea is fun, but fits more into Mother Earth News or the excellent Firefox survival books more than this forum of anal beer brewers. . . . .

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I understand what you're saying, I on the other hand do this simply to see if I can. I will probably keep doing it to see what the limits are and see what it is best suited for. It also keeps me from getting too anal myself, I am into the whole self sufficient idea and I have a long ways to go.

I'm not expecting much, but if it makes beer then that's cool.

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Can't be said better.

Hey all, quick update on my wild yeast experiment. I finally got around to brewing a Smoked Wheat beer with it yesterday. I posted some additional info here: http://beerandcoding.com/adventures-in-homebrew-wild-smoked-wheat-oaked-munich-ipa/

Cheers!
Kevin

Bottled my Juniper Ale today. Finished at 1.004 (OG = 1.042). Normal taste, very light beer, ordinary in every way.

The cloves I noticed before were not there this time.

This yeast did not flocculate hard (any movement of the carboy resulted in a flare-up of yeast). Still, I think I did a pretty clean job racking into bottling bucket.

Pics will follow in a couple weeks.

passedpawn said:

Bottled my Juniper Ale today. Finished at 1.004 (OG = 1.042). Normal taste, very light beer, ordinary in every way.

The cloves I noticed before were not there this time.

This yeast did not flocculate hard (any movement of the carboy resulted in a flare-up of yeast). Still, I think I did a pretty clean job racking into bottling bucket.

Pics will follow in a couple weeks.

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Awesome, the dominant yeast in yours appears to have higher attenuation and lower flocculation than the one in mine. I'd love to see some more pics!! Also where's the thread on your other pineapple stuff, so suspensefull.

Our sweet stout ended at 1.022 and was kegged/bottled yesterday, expected FG was 1.018 I believe, don't remember the OG off the top of my head. All fermentations with mine have flocculated very well with a nice compact trub settlement and clearing nicely without anything other than irish moss in the boil.

We popped one of the 14% "Wee heavies" from the initial tests and it was great, as expected it was sweet, but the malt and heat came through nicely to balance and was smooth and too drinkable.

It's about time to brew again so I'm trying to decide if the next batch will be a lager, or a wheat, I still want to do a saison, but would have to do some setup, and it's starting to get pretty cool at nights here so it may be next year.

Keep on yeasting my friends

Ladies & Germs, I present to you Parsimony Ale



Oddly good. Its named Parsimiony Ale because it cost exactly $0.00 to brew:

• Yeast cultured from neighbors juniper bush (see previous posts/pics in this thread),
• Wort extracted from spent grains of IIPA batch,
• Hop bag reused from previous IIPA batch.

Comes off as a nice malty pale ale. That wild yeast did a GREAT job. I'm really profoundly impressed. I saved some of that yeast and it will see further duty in a mead.

This concludes the broadcast day. [queue anthem]

So we are looking at about 77% attenuation with Colo's strain (on his 1.054) and 88% with passedown? Are they two different yeasts completely? I'm just curious if they have any flavor characteristics in common...

skibb said:

So we are looking at about 77% attenuation with Colo's strain (on his 1.054) and 88% with passedown? Are they two different yeasts completely? I'm just curious if they have any flavor characteristics in common...

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I would assume they are, there are probably multiple strains of yeast in each culture. We haven't noticed any clove flavors with ours but all our brews with it so far have been heavier styles or flavored styles.

As an update on mine, we brewed another of our :Smokin Hot Blonde: (Smoked Jalapeno blonde ale) and I used the last of the yeast from the first washing, appx. 2 months old. It took off fantastically, this will be the first light "colored" ale we've brewed with it so it will be interesting to see the final clarity of it. The sweet stout is still conditioning/carbing in the keg/bottles and we haven't sampled it yet.

I have been top cropping the yeast from this blonde and will be separating ale from Lager in the future, assuming there are any lager strains. As a side note, I left the SG sample in the garage and it is also fermenting, I will probably save the yeast from it also and start some "open air" culture(s). The sons think I am going nuts! It's a short trip.

Passedpawn, that looks deeelish, it's hard to tell, is there a little haze still?

That is all.

skibb said:

So we are looking at about 77% attenuation with Colo's strain (on his 1.054) and 88% with passedown? Are they two different yeasts completely? I'm just curious if they have any flavor characteristics in common...

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The wort was likely VERY fermentable since the grains sat in water for about 3 hours, and drifted from about 155 down to 120 deg. This probably is why I got such super attenuation.

COLObrewer said:

Passedpawn, that looks deeelish, it's hard to tell, is there a little haze still?

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I think that haze is due to the odd lighting setup I was using. It's a microscope ring lamp under the glass, with a CD case cover between! I remember it being quite clear actually. It sat at 33F for at least 2 weeks (maybe 3, can't remember from work).

Thanks for the updates.

I think that haze is due to the odd lighting setup I was using. It's a microscope ring lamp under the glass, with a CD case cover between!

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I thought you had some kind of special beer (pre)viewing device!

JohnMc said:

Thanks for the updates.
I thought you had some kind of special beer (pre)viewing device!

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It looks really good in person, but the camera just can't figure out what to do with it. I think I'll buy a under-cabinet puck light from home depot and make a cool viewing stand. I think I could open a hole in a piece of wood with a hole saw, put the puck light in there, and cover with a cheap piece of 1/4" glass.

Here's another shot with the flash turned off.

Dude, that looks awesome.
Right on spec for a Halloween draft to boot
Good karma on the Bell's glass, too.

COLObrewer said:

Passedpawn, that looks deeelish, it's hard to tell, is there a little haze still?

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I opened one tonight and put it in front of the newspaper. It's really clear. This crazy wild yeast did a nice job.

passedpawn said:

I opened one tonight and put it in front of the newspaper. It's really clear. This crazy wild yeast did a nice job.

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YES! That is nice clarity, I suspect that whenever (If ever) I do a lighter beer I will be able to see this clarity.

I don't have much new technical info regarding my yeast, The sweet stout is almost conditioned and so far it is what we wanted, quite creamy with a hint of sweet maltiness mixed with the roast, here's a picture:


I have started to "top crop" the ale yeast, I pulled it from the krausen of a Jalapeno beer last week and have already used it on a "Phunkin Wheat". Here's a pic while it was chilling:

So this will be the first time using it in a wheat beer. It was rocking the next morning.

All these tests I've been doing really doesn't compare the yeast to any other known yeast, I want to do this at some point. In the meantime I find we are neglecting all the other washed yeast in the fridge, I'm using this for everything. It is now grape picking time and I will probably try this in my wine also, it has done a fine job on the cherry wine, so far it is down to 1.008, it's still got a little ways to go and the cherry wine tastes as good as previous years batches and tastes exactly the same as the 1118 batch.

I've calculated the average apparent attenuation to be 72.425, this includes the high gravity test batches. The yeast floculates quickly and is very hard and tight, I suspect the top cropped yeast will be even more compact.

That is all for now

COLObrewer said:

All these tests I've been doing really doesn't compare the yeast to any other known yeast, I want to do this at some point.

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I split a batch of pale ale this wkend between this juniper yeast and some S-05. So that should make a nice comparison.

This thread rocks my socks off. I need to go harvest some local Maryland yeast next season.

I'll see what we have here in SoCal.

Almost forgot about this, I partygyled some third runnings off the "Phunkin Wheat" brew above and innoculated it with some airborne yeast that infected the hydro sample of the previous jalapeno beer. It's making alot of yeast, so far it smells OK. I doubt I will buy yeast again, ever.

passedpawn said:

I split a batch of pale ale this wkend between this juniper yeast and some S-05. So that should make a nice comparison.

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OK, replying to my own post.

I just tested my split batch of pale ale. It's been fermenting in my chest freezer at 62°F. 10 gallon batch, split between two fermenters.

Original Gravity = 1.054 (brewed October 3)
Some small clove taste in the Juniper sample. I got this before, too, and it went away.

So, it does seem that this wild yeast I grabbed from a bush in my neighborhood is a great attenuator. I'd like to add that attenuation is not always a good thing: the Fermentis beer sample tasted better. I'll reserve judgement until the comparison beers are bottled and conditioned.

With the cold weather coming (relative statement here in FL), I'll be jumping into lagers soon. So, I will try this Juniper yeast as a lager, probably in a split batch of German Pils.

My Juniper Berry Pale Ale (see above) has been in a bottle for a week, as well as the control beer (with S-05). I did a side-by-side. Here's some notes:

• S-05 made a good pale ale. Nice hop aroma and flavor, with some malt backbone to support the hops.
• Juniper Pale Ale finshed way too low (FG), and the body is fairly thin.
• Juniper Pale Ale has a slight clovey aroma that mixes with the hop aroma and ruins the hoppy aroma.
• Juniper pale ale has a slightly clovey flavor that mixes with the hop flavor and creates an odd resulting flavor, really not pale-ale-like.
• Juniper Pale Ale was more highly carbonated; very nice frothy sticky head.

Overall, the S-05 made a much more satisfying pale ale. This yeast was a little estery and is probably best left to american wheats, wits, etc.

I have dumped the rest of this yeast and doubt I will repeat this experiment until the zombie apocalypse.

Excellent, thanx for the update, I assume it attenuated very high again, please post the attenuation or the OG and FG with your picture. EDIT: never mind I see it above^

I still haven't used mine in anything I want to compare with another yeast so not really any new details. I've used it on some white and red grape wine which is still fermenting and another batch of chili beer and a batch of phunkin wheat, seems like I'm missing something.

The latest strains do seem to be getting more and more attenuative, if it goes too far I will simply start over with the initial sample that was taken, also flocculation is still very tight and compact, it is doing a great job for us so far, it's all we're using.

Just wanted to give a quick update. The smoked wheat (gratzer-ish) beer I brewed turned out pretty well. A calculation goof on my part put the IBU around 40, instead of the 15 I was shooting for.

I did a quick review of the beer on my site a few weeks ago: Wild Smoked Wheat Update

Last night I brewed a Biere de Garde using a culture of yeast I saved from the smoked wheat. When I checked on it this morning (~11 hours after pitching) it already had a full krausen.

Cheers!
Kevin

Another update.

My Biere de Garde has been fermenting for a week now. While the Smoked Wheat beer didn't really take off until the temperature spiked into the high 70(F)'s, the BdG is rolling right along at ~60(F). The krausen has just about finished falling in and I will be probably take the first hydro measurement tonight.

Here is the recipe I used for my BdG: Wild Biere de Garde

And here is the next beer I plan to use the yeast on: Ducks 12-0 Barleywine

Cheers!
Kevin

I took a hydrometer reading for my Biere de Garde last night. It was at 1.013, down from a starting gravity of 1.054. That puts the efficiency at 76% so far.

Cheers!
Kevin

beerandcoding said:

I took a hydrometer reading for my Biere de Garde last night. It was at 1.013, down from a starting gravity of 1.054. That puts the efficiency at 76% so far.

Cheers!
Kevin

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IS efficiency the right term for that? I thought efficiency determines your OG. What's the term for how much sugar the yeast eat up?

attenuation

Also, to Beerandcoding, any chance you'd want to send some of your juniper wild yeast up to Portland? I'd like to try it out on batch or two. I have a wild brett/lacto blend from an ambient ferment I could send in return.

Cheers!

doctorRobert said:

IS efficiency the right term for that? I thought efficiency determines your OG. What's the term for how much sugar the yeast eat up?

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Right, he means attenuation.

@Doc: Yep, should have been attenuation. Hadn't had enough coffee when I started posting this morning.

@Beeraroundtown: I will be working up another starter of wild yeast (+ whatever other bugs are probably in there) next week for a Barleywine and can save some for you. Not sure on the best way to get it to Portland though. I am not currently set up to do slants, I've just been washing yeast into jars. I can bring some with me on my next trip north, but that won't be until after the first of the year. Let me know.

Cheers!
Kevin

Kevin,
Next trip up works great, I'll buy you a beer or two! Or if you have an old Whitelabs tube you could ship it up in that. Thanks a ton, should be fun to try out on a few beers.

Quick update with the house yeasts, We brewed up a batch of special red (All Citra, 9oz, 1.064OG) and I used some unwashed juniper yeast from 4 months ago, it started rocking about 4 days after pitching, we should be able to tell how the yeast is flocculating with this brew, fermenting at 70F.


We also partigyled a small beer (1.042, 3gals) from this and I used the airborne yeast I captured 3 months ago to try as a lager, it's doing pretty well at 45-50F


I'll post some more pics of this brew as it progresses, will be dry hopping so the big batch will be racked to a carboy. The next batches, I will start comparing with other yeasts probably lighter colored beers.

Keep on brewing my friends

educational and captivating - you guys rock

Wowie-Zowie!

This is so cool. I just killed 30+ minutes at work reading this thread. Makes me wonder if I could try this with some of the Concord Grapes my in-laws have growing in their back yard.

So many ideas, so little time!