Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Wyeast Scottish Ale
Batch Size (Gallons): 4.5
Original Gravity: 1.087
Final Gravity: 1.018
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 10 days, 65F
Tasting Notes: It seems to elicit almost a sense of glee.

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!