Mugwort Anti-Imperial Stout
 

Grain bill
8 1/2 lbs pale 2-row malt
3/4 lb caramel 120 L malt
1/2 lb chocolate malt
3/4 lb Weyermann Carafa II malt
1/2 lb roasted barley
1/2 lb Weyermann pale wheat malt
1 lb oat flakes

Extra sugars
2 lbs wildflower honey
1 c blackstrap molasses for bottling

Herbs
1 1/2 oz dried mugwort tops and leaves (roughly three packed cups)
1/2 oz licorice root
1/2 oz roasted chicory root
1/2 oz dried chamomile flowers
1/4 oz dried lemon grass
1/4 oz dried sweet orange peel
1/2 fl oz vanilla extract
1 T Indian sarsaparilla (Hemidesmus indicus)


METHOD

This requires a step-infusion mash to extract the sugars from the oats. Heat 3 gals water to 140 F for initial mashing; temp should reach around 125 F. Soak for 15 min, then add 1 1/2 gals of 200 F water to bring temp up to 150-152 F.

When conversion is complete, raise mash temp to 170 F. Sparge, etc. Add enough water to bring up to 5 1/2 gals. Add honey to wort before it comes to a boil to avoid scorching.

Add 1 oz. of mugwort at beginning of 1 hr boil. Twenty min. before end of boil, add remaining 1/2 oz mugwort, licorice and chicory. Ten min. before end of boil, add chamomile, lemon grass, sweet orange peel and vanilla. If you plan to use a wort chiller, cover brewpot and let steep at end of boil for ten additional minutes before straining out herbs.

At bottling, add Indian sarsaparilla and molasses to 1 qt water and boil 20 min. Bottle with oxygen-absorbing caps if possible.

This stout will taste great in just two weeks, but should continue to improve as it ages. Save it for special occasions; don't waste it on your Coors-guzzling brother-in-law.

Author: Dave Bonta


Other Notes:

I am hoping to try making this recipe using a Lambic-type yeast and aging on oak sometime in the near future. I will let you know how this goes, though it will of course take a while for such a beer to mature.

Mugwort produces different mental effects than hops when present in beer. Several of my friends and I have noticed this while drinking this beer. It seems to elicit almost a sense of glee.

Of course, hops have mental and physiological effects of their own if you are aware enough to observe them. It is estrogenic (it helps women in menopause), it is an anaphrodisiac for men (it dulls the sex drive), and is a sedative (it is good for insomniacs).

Mugwort is believed to possess healing properties by many ancient traditions, and is also supposed to stimulate lucid dreaming and increase dream recollection.

Enjoy!

Note:

Recipe from gruitale.com :: Gruit Ale & Unhopped Beers, Brewing Herbs and Recipes

Cross-listed on this forum with "Stout" recipe list

Dear sweet lord.......

Looking at this with a friend... she wants to brew this.....heaven help us all......

Sounds pretty cool. I am planning to do a gruit this fall in hopes that it is ready for yule season next year. I may have to look at mugwort for the bittering. How is the bitterness level?

Did this minus a few ingredients that I couldn't find/forgot and it turned out great! All my friends loved it and I had to hide a couple of bottles so I could taste it after some aging. It's taken a lot of willpower to resist and let it lie.

Mugwort
 

Hello All

I did an add of mugwort of 1 oz for 10 gallons at the 60 min end of the boil. tasting it, after the secondary and dry hopping, all I can taste is the mugwort. I would like to know what characteristics I can expect as it ages? any insight will be appreciated.

on that last post I forgot to mention that I wasn't doing this recipe. I was putting together a spiced porter. It had 4 hop (5oz total) additions and dry hopped but the mugwort still overpowers everything. I really hope it mellows over time and I didn't screw up my batch.

this looks AMAZING. I can't wait to make this one. I love gruits and spiced beers in general. This sounds like what's coming next.

im sorry but if (glee) had any relevant definition of a sense I would like to know what that is I just googled it and found the whole meaning to be murdered by fox's new TV series. please elaborate. thank you:) beer sounds awesome btw

Here's what dictionary.com has to say about it:

Glee:
–noun
1. open delight or pleasure; exultant joy; exultation.

I agree with the original poster. I made a gruit with Mugwort as one of the ingredients and it does have different psychotropic effects. I get a sense of being happier and a little more energetic, compared to when I drink standard hopped beers. It's a subtle, but noticeable difference between the gruit and hopped brews.

The first couple times I noticed the feeling of "glee," I wasn't anticipating it. I hadn't been thinking about what effects the different herbs might have, I was just enjoying the beer. It wasn't until after having a pint that I noticed I felt different than usual.