Brewing with Juniper Berries

Any thoughts?

I made a sahti inspired IPA with about 25% rye, and an ounce of juniper berries in the boil. When I racked it into secondary, I noticed the beer had this really fresh, earthy flavor to it from the juniper. I think pairing it with the rye is pretty brilliant, too. The only issue I had was that my boil didn't go how I wanted it, and I planned on adding the juniper for the last 5 minutes, but I ran long trying to get to my post-boil volume, so they probably boiled for 15-20 minutes instead. We'll see what it's like when it's ready to go, but I think it's going to be delicious.

I would be careful brewing with any more than on ounce or so per 5-6 gallon batch, if you just want to experiment. I think the flavor would be a lot sharper and more aromatic adding the juniper to the secondary. That being said, I plan on brewing an IPA once I can harvest some spruce tips, and adding the spruce to the primary, and then adding juniper berries and cranberries to the secondary.

Oh, and make sure you mashing the berries before you add them to the batch. You get more flavor that way.

inthesound said:

... I think pairing it with the rye is pretty brilliant, too...

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This. I made a Juniper Rye Pale Ale a few months back, and it turned out to be one of my favorites. 1 oz of whole in the last 15 minutes gave me a good juniper flavor, without really outshining the other flavors in the mix. Haven't tried mashing them up yet, so it looks like I have another beer to plan.

inthesound said:

I made a sahti inspired IPA with about 25% rye...

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That is a brilliant combination.

Did you use dried Juniper berries from a bottle/bag or fresh ones. Which variety?

We have a few Juniper shrubs with lots of the blue-green berries, and am itching to use them some time. They taste very pungent as they are. Any secrets or thoughts you can share?

I used brewer's best dried juniper berries and a took a masher that you would use in your kitchen, and beat the hell out of 'em. Not sure if there was any other info on the variety of juniper. That berry color sounds spot on, but I think if you cross-reference some photos and materials you can be reasonably sure that you have the right species to cook into some beer.

I was surprised when I first opened the package, because the berries had almost no smell. It was very dull, and then I went back to the kitchen, beat 'em up a bit, and then I got that great cedar smell out of them.

For what it's worth, here's the recipe I cooked up:

9# 2-row
3.5# rye
.75# 40L

Mashed around 152

1oz chinook@60
1oz goldings@15
.5oz cascade@10
.5oz chinook@5
1oz juniper berries@5
1oz chinook@dry hop

wyeast1056

1.070 og, read 1.018 when I racked it into secondary.
8˚srm, 55ibu, 7.1%abv

No sparge issues with the rye, either.

Seems like you guys used whole berries in the boil as opposed to mashing them up. When you put the wort into the primary fermenter did you leave the berries in or strain them out?

I tossed mine into the boil in a nylon hop bag with my 15min hops, so effectively they were strained out. Might be interesting to see how letting them stay in the wort during fermentation would affect the beer, though.

inthesound said:

I used brewer's best dried juniper berries and a took a masher ...

9# 2-row
3.5# rye
.75# 40L
...
1.070 og, read 1.018 when I racked it into secondary....

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Thanks for the recipe.
I would mash em up too, sure. Much better extraction of all the goodness and resins. Maybe add a few juniper tips.

Your FG is very decent. Something to cling onto.

25% is a nice amount of rye. I would even chance something up to 50% of the grain bill, with plenty of rice hulls, and a long low temp thinnish mash. Got to punch that into BeerSmith and see what FG that will yield. Guesstimate 1.024-26, based on yours.

The juniper berries I've seen in the grocery stores and my Indian Spice market are all brown and round. Maybe they are roasted? The berries on the trees here look like tiny acorns with scalloped rims. They are very light colored bluish green, and taste very "piney."

I may do a small batch with them and see what happens. Or make a juniper tea first and see what potion it makes, before committing them to the wort.

inthesound said:

...1oz chinook@dry hop...

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Recipe looks like it's in my future. How long did you dry hop the chinooks for?

Yeah, I had a nice efficiency on the batch, 76%. I just wanted to break the skin on the berries, then threw them in. All the hops and berries were strained out going into the carboy. The plan was to leave the chinook in there for a week, as that's what I've been doing most of my dry hops at. I might let it sit longer.

My brew buddy said we're going to drink this one pretty damn fast, he loved the sample so much when we racked to secondary.

Sweet, I'll have to do this one in time to have it ready for summer.

inthesound said:

My brew buddy said we're going to drink this one pretty damn fast, he loved the sample so much when we racked to secondary.

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I wouldn't be surprised if you went through it quickly. Juniper + Rye = Dangerously Drinkable

inthesound said:

Yeah, I had a nice efficiency on the batch, 76%. I just wanted to break the skin on the berries, then threw them in. All the hops and berries were strained out going into the carboy. The plan was to leave the chinook in there for a week, as that's what I've been doing most of my dry hops at. I might let it sit longer.

My brew buddy said we're going to drink this one pretty damn fast, he loved the sample so much when we racked to secondary.

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Oh, you're still dry hopping it...

IslandLizard said:

Or make a juniper tea first and see what potion it makes, before committing them to the wort.

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Maybe make a juniper extract and add it at bottling to a beer you think will go well with it.
Then decide to commit.

jcam91 said:

Maybe make a juniper extract and add it at bottling to a beer you think will go well with it.
Then decide to commit.

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Oh yeah, that will work even better. That's what I do now with hop tea instead of dry hopping. Still have to score a french press, but a sanitized (hop bag) filter works great too.

I just visited the juniper tree, the berries are gone, they went to seed. The only thing left are the opened cones. So timing is of the essence. Have to wait for fresh ones until next winter. Until then, the dried berries at the spice market are still an option.

While I was looking at them, my wife asked what I was planning to do with the berries. She always expresses some fear with my explorations and probably mostly for what they can lead to. I wonder why.

Could it be the sour beers I made and drank? The yogurt plant? Jars of yeast in the fridge? The aged (rancid) brown rice I turned into a spicy dish she called "exquisite" until I told her what I used?

I kept a few pounds of spent grains in the fridge for 2 weeks as an experiment to get them slightly sour. I made wonderful bread out of it. She stared at the bread in awe, but wouldn't eat it. Instead, she ate the raisin bread I had baked at the same time. That made her happy. And that's good.

The price of dried juniper berries makes it a pretty simple choice. $2 of something to throw in a batch is nothing. And at least you know you have the right type of juniper.

I'll be sure to post here again once I get her all kegged up and ready to go. Truly, the hardest part about brewing beer is waiting. Waiting 3 or 4 weeks to figure out if you got it right...it's tough!

Let us know how it goes if you brew with the juniper.

It is not the price, just the curiosity to use something different, to create something that maybe better, maybe worse. Tinkering.

Yes, let us know how it turns out. If the sample tasted great, the conditioned and carbonated beer should be even better.

This thread is inspiring me to do a rye juniper brew. I live where the western juniper grows like a weed everwhere. Its my main sourse of firewood. I'm in the high desert in eastern oregon. How much rye should I add to say 10 lbs of 2 row?

I really love rye in beer, and I have found that it can be hard for me to detect under 20%. But your hops will play a big part on the clarity of that rye flavor. I used 25% for the recipe I posted, and generally like the 25-30% range. I never use rice hulls, and have had no stuck sparge incidences thus far.

Using wild/backyard ingredients is great! Really looking forward to the spruces budding.