Nothin like drinking trees

So yeah I like Gin and I like trees, as many of you know these go together since a key flavoring ingredient in Gin is Juniper.  I had the fortunate luck to pick juniper berries this fall on top of Paulina Peak in Central Oregon.  I have ever since geology field camp loved the taste of juniper berries and ever since have craved the flavor.  As my wife will tell you the first thing I do when I go on a hike in Eastern Oregon is find a juniper berry and then proceed to chew on it while I hike.  I drink less and less Gin these days so I really don't get my juniper fix these days but as you all know I drink beer and it got me thinking why not put juniper in a beer?  Well here is where the juniper berries that I picked on Paulina Peak come in.  As fate would have it I was loaned my moms food dehydrator and as fate would also have it I forgot to take my "Gin berries" out said dehydrator when I gave it back.  Tragically most of my berries where lost in the trash even though my mom heroically dug many out of the garbage for me.  Luck would have it that we just started shopping at a Co Op for our groceries and they have a large spice collection and incidentally juniper berries.  So tomorrow I will be making a juniper nut brown ale for the holiday season, kind of a Christmas tree beer if you will.  The recipe is as follows.

Juniper Nut Brown 5.5 gal batch

9.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 76.6 % 
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 8.5 % 
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 8.5 % 
0.50 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 4.3 % 
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.1 % 
1.00 oz Willamette [4.50%] (60 min) Hops 14.7 IBU 
1.00 oz Willamette [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 8.1 IBU 
1.00 oz Juniper berries (5 min)

1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale 

possibly more Juniper to taste in the secondary fermenter