Prepping Juniper for Gin?

[Rrmuf]

Hi,
I recently found, identified and picked a pile of juniper berries with the intent of doing a gin with it. They are all a nice dark blue, I sifted and cleaned them all. Now, should I dehydrate them before using them in my gin basket with my neutral? Or should I use them fresh? Also, Does anyone know whether I can freeze them for later use?

[Bushman]

The ones I ordered for gin were dried. In using a dehydrator allow at least two days, air drying could take up to three weeks.

[Rrmuf]

Thanks Bushman! The ones I bought previously were also dried so That's where I was heading , but all of a sudden I was wondering why would I remove flavour?

I learned a commercial distillery here will freeze the juniper berries but I am unsure as to whether those were fresh or dried berries.

[NZChris]

I'd use some fresh and only dry what I wanted to keep for later.

If you do dry some, weigh them before and after to get a number you can use to calculate how much to use fresh in recipes that are for dried ingredients.

[Bushman]

There is a lot of flavor in both dried and fresh. All the recipes I have seen for gin call for crushing the berry thus I am guessing at that point they are dry. I just did my run with dried berries and the flavor came through as strong as I want it to be.

[Rrmuf]

Thank you both. Although I did the crushed / dried thing previously, which was fine, I will try a run with fresh. I will also do a before and after weigh-in to compare and can let you know here.

In general, I was surprised at how early and somewhat short-lived the juniper came through in the run. Made for a nice gin after blending though!

[Rrmuf]

I'd use some fresh and only dry what I wanted to keep for later.

If you do dry some, weigh them before and after to get a number you can use to calculate how much to use fresh in recipes that are for dried ingredients.

FYI: 100g fresh juniper berries resulted in 72g when dehydrated.

[NZChris]

Thanks for that.

I'm trying to grow some from seed, with no success so far

[Rrmuf]

Thanks for that.

I'm trying to grow some from seed, with no success so far

So no Juniper in NZ then: I wonder if you just need a number of plants. Fields here in Canada are littered with them. I have my sister picking them from her (very rural) location so that I can make a batch for her with a regional connection. The difficulty is in separating the ripe berries from all the crap that falls off with it. This is what I've learned so far:

1. Only female plants have berries.
2. In our region the ratio between male or immature bushes to berry-producing female plants almost 10:1 (NZC: I don't know if you are at that point yet, but if you are growing bushes, that might affect the number of bushes you plant)

Picking them:

3. Ripe berries tend to fall off when you brush up against them with GLOVED hand while the green berries hang on. So I keep a shallow pan under branches to catch the falling matter as I brush the branch.

Separating:

4. Separating the berries from the rest of the chaff requires persistence! (I am open to ideas here). I could get rid of 80% of the chaff by continuously dumping DRY chaff/berry mix between buckets outside in a strong wind. The berries drop like a stone and alot of the chaff flies with the wind.

5. 80% of the effort went into removing the last 20% of the chaff in the form of little branches, needles. I finally determined that soaking the mix in a colander was helpful and then picking up small palmfuls of the mix, rolling the berries off my fingertips worked well. The wet berries rolled off;
the wet chaff stuck to my fingers.

This was my first stab at picking and processing juniper berries SO COMMENT/INPUT is welcome! It wasn't too onerous: I would say that it took max two hours of effort to pick and separate about 500g in fresh berries which should supply ~ 4 still runs so not too bad. To do it over again, I would definitely try to spend more time on the dry wind-fueled process with more volume and still work at the last 20%.... I am thinking of some tool to help me here.

Anyhow, that is all I have: I look forward to my next Gin batch and I am researching the techniques for maceration.

Cheers.

[Rrmuf]

Thanks for that.

I'm trying to grow some from seed, with no success so far

NZC: I just ran into this. Have you read this?

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/germinate ... 25105.html

In any event, good luck!

[NZChris]

I hadn't seen a method using boiled water.

I suspect the juniper I get may have been irradiated at the border, in which case I would have little chance of success.

[The Baker]

My uncle planted a LOT of eucalyptus trees on his farm.
From seed.
From memory he soaked the seeds in VERY hot water for some time to prepare them for planting.

Geoff

[Rrmuf]

I had a couple spare hours in the country side yesterday and picked up roughly 1 Kg (final weighing pending). I was very pleased, since I thought I was about a month too late and it could have been more if I had stayed longer.

SO, if you live in Canada, and are into picking juniper, get out there: There are still lots!!!!

[Rrmuf]

2022 Juniper crop ~1.5Kg

[Yummyrum]

Rrmuf
Very glad to have read this topic . Appreciate your findings and processing hints . We have recently planted 5 Junipers we bought from “Diggers Club “ in Australia . They come in the post as seedlings .
https://www.diggers.com.au/products/juniper-berry
The low viability of trees is a concern though and at a 10:1 success rate , I’m thinking we might need another 5 at least .

Our climate is fairly warm and humid . How does that compare with your region ? Also curious if you have any info on how old trees are before producing .

EDIT: I just went to add link to Diggers club and read that they supply cuttings from a self pollinating tree .So hopefully I’ll be OK . My mrs ordered them originally hence my little understanding .

[Demy]

I would like to have a juniper bush ... I usually buy them dried ... I have never seen them in their natural state here where I live but I think they are here in Italy .... I tried to plant some dried seeds but not I succeeded.
Edit: for cleaning you could build a fan (also fan from a PC), I built a big one to clean the olives after harvest.

[Rrmuf]

Rrmuf
Very glad to have read this topic . Appreciate your findings and processing hints . We have recently planted 5 Junipers we bought from “Diggers Club “ in Australia . They come in the post as seedlings .
https://www.diggers.com.au/products/juniper-berry
The low viability of trees is a concern though and at a 10:1 success rate , I’m thinking we might need another 5 at least .

Our climate is fairly warm and humid . How does that compare with your region ? Also curious if you have any info on how old trees are before producing .

Hi YR,

I don't know that much about the nature of the plant but a couple answers for you:

1. Our climate is warm/hot (30C) in the summer and cold (-10-20C) in the winter We would usually find our summers humid, but I think that's relative. I usually find low-lying juniper shrubs in drier soils / rocky lands. I find them in the same marginal soil conditions as pine trees.... but never under much tree cover. They seem to love the sun.

2. On the ratio of trees/shrubs I don't know about survival rate or maturity level required to produce berries but I can tell you that out of 10 living shrubs, one or two might produce berries at any given time - so I agree on the extra five trees. Earlier in the summer I can spot these and then I wait until our autumn (september-october here) for them to ripen.

I hope this helps.

Good luck and please post progress here! I'm curious! Also, I'm about to start with rum, so hopefully you can help me there!

[Rrmuf]

I would like to have a juniper bush ... I usually buy them dried ... I have never seen them in their natural state here where I live but I think they are here in Italy .... I tried to plant some dried seeds but not I succeeded.
Edit: for cleaning you could build a fan (also fan from a PC), I built a big one to clean the olives after harvest.

Hi, Interesting that you don't see them in Italy because I know they have a healthy juniper market in neighbouring Croatia. I've often wondered if a coniferous forest helps with juniper shrubs because we always see them in fields near our pine forests here. I've speculated that perhaps the pine trees contribute to an acidic soil and junipers like that.

Thanks for the good idea on the fan: I usually don't have long to wait to get the wind conditions to support it. I usually do it on our land where I would like to see juniper shrubs grow so if I lose a few berries there as part of the process.... Well, that's not too bad is it?

[Demy]

I would like to have a juniper bush ... I usually buy them dried ... I have never seen them in their natural state here where I live but I think they are here in Italy .... I tried to plant some dried seeds but not I succeeded.
Edit: for cleaning you could build a fan (also fan from a PC), I built a big one to clean the olives after harvest.

Hi, Interesting that you don't see them in Italy because I know they have a healthy juniper market in neighbouring Croatia. I've often wondered if a coniferous forest helps with juniper shrubs because we always see them in fields near our pine forests here. I've speculated that perhaps the pine trees contribute to an acidic soil and junipers like that.

Thanks for the good idea on the fan: I usually don't have long to wait to get the wind conditions to support it. I usually do it on our land where I would like to see juniper shrubs grow so if I lose a few berries there as part of the process.... Well, that's not too bad is it?

[Big_D]

Thanks for that.

I'm trying to grow some from seed, with no success so far

Have you seen the study/project that is a combined effort from Juno, Massey Uni and Cedar Lodge Nursery? They have identified 47 confirmed juniper trees in NZ with good genitic diversity.
I'd bee keen to put a few trees in somewhere nearby, which could be a possibility as Cedar Lodge is only about 15km from me.

https://www.massey.ac.nz/about/news/pro ... r-berries/

[NZChris]

Yes.

Have a talk to them. Let me know how you get on, please.

[Rrmuf]

... Good luck down under!

NB. In the wild over here, it's only about 1 bush in 10 that will actually produce berries.

[Karearea]

Off topic post sorry but hoping to attract more kiwi stillers.
I’m lucky enough to have some fresh horopito leaves that I’ll use in future gin runs. Can anyone help with best approach for longer term storage? Can I just freeze and use as required?
Cheers