Identifying juniper species

[foomench]

I want to add some more juniper to my Gotlandsdricka and was thinking of making a juniper tea with fresh sprigs for my honey additions. There's lots of juniper around, but apparently not all is good for human consumption. Wikipedia reports

All juniper species grow berries, but some are considered too bitter to eat. In addition to J. communis, other edible species include Juniperus drupacea,[2] [3] Juniperus phoenicea,[4] Juniperus deppeana, and Juniperus californica.[5] Some species, for example Juniperus sabina, are toxic and consumption is inadvisable.[6]

From the pictures I've found on the web, a lot of the low growing shrubs are sabina based. It appears the reportedly safe varieties are more tree-like. Then there are some shrub varieties of the species Juniperus chinensis, and I don't know if that is safe or not.

Can anyone elaborate on this? Is there any way to definitively identify all the shrubs growing around here (Colorado)? Anyone know if that chinensis is safe or not for brewing? Google hits so far suggest it is, but confirmation would be nice.

[spiderwrangler]

What you posted seems to be talking about berries, not sure on what the toxicity of vegetation would be....

[nikkormat]

yeah, i've never heard of using the sprigs other than how it was traditionally done for sahti. from what i understand and from how i've used juniper, most of that traditional flavor comes from the berries and not the vegetation...

fwiw i've always used the dried berries coarsely ground in a coffee grinder & in a hop sack near the end of the boil, so your tea idea would work well for that method if you've already brewed the beer

[PorkSlapper]

If you give me an Idea of where you live, if this is a natural growing juniper and a few pictures I should be able to key the species out for you. I do this stuff for a living. PM me if you want my help.



edit: Jumped on the USDA plant database, and I'm thinking if it is a tree like juniper you are collecting from it is either going to be, J. scopulorum, osteosperma, monosperma.
If it is shrub to ground covering its prob communis.