Monday, January 26, 2009

Juniper Ale III

The third installment of our Juniper Ale series may prove to be the best yet. The basic idea for this beer is to replace the bitterness of the hops with the flavor and bitterness of the juniper berry. We dry-hopped again to strictly add hop flavor and aroma. For this recipe I used about 4 oz of berries smuggled into MN from Alabama (thanks, Walter). Prior to the boil, I mashed the berries in a bowl of vodka and let them sit for about 2 hours. The vodka (hopefully) killed any bacteria on the berries. I then drank the vodka. Damn it was good. Here is the recipe:

Specialty Grains: 1 lbs Dingemens caramel pils
Fermentables: 6 lbs Gold Malt Syrup
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Hops: 2 oz Willamette leaf hops dry hopped into the primary.
Berries: mashed in vodka, soaked for 2 hours, bagged and tossed into the primary with the hops.