On Friday I brewed up some tree beer using Leyland Cypress boughs in the strike and sparge water as well as in the mash vessel. OG was ~1.050 and I split the boil to brew up a saison and a pale ale with galaxy and sultana (denali) hops. The saison is fermenting with a wild yeast culture I captured from my neighbor's raw honey and the pale ale has Framgarden kveik. They're both fermenting at 87°F/30.5°C

The Leyland Cypress gives the beer a pleasant evergreen/christmas tree flavor that's a bit citrusy and not too overwhelming. I've brewed with this tree a number of times and thoroughly researched it so I'm fully confident that it is not toxic. I don't measure the amount of tree I put in the beer, basically just put branches into the kettle until it's annoying to try to add another one.

Kernza® is the trademark name for the grain produced from the plant intermediate wheatgrass (Thinopyrum intermedium). The plant is native to western Asia, and this perennial “cousin” of wheat has historically been grown in the US and across the globe to feed livestock. The Land Institute is developing it to serve as a perennial grain source for people and working toward a future that includes multiple varieties of Kernza® that are economical for farmers around the world to produce at a large scale.

-The Land Institute

Kernza grains are really tiny compared to standard barley/wheat, so instead of pointlessly pouring them through my malt mill, I sent them through my flour mill on a coarser setting to get a little crush on them without completely turning them into flour. Talking to a local brewery that has brewed a few kernza beers, they told me they don't mill the kernza at all. They just dump it straight into the mash and don't really expect to get much sugar extraction from the kernza addition. They're just adding it for flavor, which is often described as similar to rye. The grain also contains a lot of beta-glucan (also similar to rye).

Recipe for 5 gallons:

• 85% Best Pils
• 15% raw Kernza

Single Infusion Mash at 150°F/65°C

• 1oz Summer hops 8.3% @60 min (31.4 IBU)
• 1oz Summer hops 8.3% hopstand for 10 min (6.6 IBU)

I got these for free, apparently Summer is no longer being grown anywhere which is a shame :(

Fermented at 75-80°F/24-27°C for about 3-4 weeks with a wild yeast culture I captured from a bunch of juniper berries foraged on the side of a hiking trail on Granddad's Bluff outside of LaCrosse, WI.

OG: 1.050/12°P FG: 1.004/1°P

Bottled a week ago with enough priming sugar for 4 volumes. Could use a little more time to fully prime, but patience is difficult.

Tastes really good, I'm not sure if I can pick out the kernza or not, but the beer is really nicely fruity with some earthy/pastoral undertones.

I know a lot of members here are in Finland so I figured I'd share this event here (sorry for the FB link but that's all I've got). Mika Laitinen (of brewingnordic.com and author of Viking Age Brew) is giving a traditional sahti brewing demo/course on Saturday April 24

Here's what he wrote on FB about it:

I'm giving a course on brewing sahti and other ancient ales on Saturday, April 26. Bircalaiset organizes the course in Pirkkala and is also open to those who aren't members of this Iron Age society. It will be a practical one-day hands-on course where people brew their own sahti or ancient ale in small groups. Handling farmhouse yeast such as kveik is a special theme of this course. I have learned a lot of new things about these yeasts in 2024-2025, although I have used Norwegian and Lithuanian farmhouse yeasts since 2015. Of course, you'll also learn to brew a tasty high-gravity sahti and flavor it with juniper, hops, and other ancient beer herbs.