Man I've been looking forward to brewing this beer for months. The juniper around the Truckee Meadows usually produce the best berries around February... but I ended up waiting until now because we got hosed in the snow department.
I've got my branches littered with berries ready to go for 4 gallons of goodness. Tomorrow is going to be warm so that's when we will brew. I'll be taking plenty of photos along the way.
The Recipe:
5# US 2-row
2# Rye Malt
1# Munich Malt
0.75# Crystal 120L
0.5oz Cascade (6.9%) 60min
0.25oz Juniper Berries 60min
0.25oz Juniper Berries 15min
0.25oz Grains of Paradise 5min
1.5L starter of Wyeast 1272 Am. Ale II
The Process:
- Go to the hills and collect a backpack full of juniper branches
- Boil the majority of the branches with some berries in cheese cloth in your mash liquor... 15-30 minutes is sufficient
- Dough-in with the juniper liquor, mash 60min
- Take a couple extra branches and push them down onto the SS braid manifold so you lauter through the branches as tradition dictates
- Sparge with juniper liquor
- Follow 60 min boil schedule
This year I won't be doing salt additions and just letting the juniper liquor chemistry dictate the balance.
Sour Sahti
To make this rendition of Sahti even more experimental and awesome I will be pulling 1 gallon of the beer when it's almost at final gravity and adding wild yeast I will harvest from the juniper berries.
I've got my branches littered with berries ready to go for 4 gallons of goodness. Tomorrow is going to be warm so that's when we will brew. I'll be taking plenty of photos along the way.
The Recipe:
5# US 2-row
2# Rye Malt
1# Munich Malt
0.75# Crystal 120L
0.5oz Cascade (6.9%) 60min
0.25oz Juniper Berries 60min
0.25oz Juniper Berries 15min
0.25oz Grains of Paradise 5min
1.5L starter of Wyeast 1272 Am. Ale II
The Process:
- Go to the hills and collect a backpack full of juniper branches
- Boil the majority of the branches with some berries in cheese cloth in your mash liquor... 15-30 minutes is sufficient
- Dough-in with the juniper liquor, mash 60min
- Take a couple extra branches and push them down onto the SS braid manifold so you lauter through the branches as tradition dictates
- Sparge with juniper liquor
- Follow 60 min boil schedule
This year I won't be doing salt additions and just letting the juniper liquor chemistry dictate the balance.
Sour Sahti
To make this rendition of Sahti even more experimental and awesome I will be pulling 1 gallon of the beer when it's almost at final gravity and adding wild yeast I will harvest from the juniper berries.