Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Mugwort Anti-Imperial Stout

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brewmonger

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
169
Reaction score
6
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!
 
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.
 
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.
 
Oh yes, I definitely agree about the use of different herbs in beers like mugwort. I particularly notice that a lot of the herbs seem to increase the strength of the beer. My best yet was one that I used blue lotus flower in and you definitely felt the affects of that herb. But, I've also noticed altering effects with a lavender ale that I did.

Would like to comment on aging of mugwort in beers, but had both batches that I aged get a bacterial infection (I still think it also had something to do with the damn meadowsweet that I used in them as well)...
 
I'm definitely interested in these herbal beers yall speak of with different euphoric effects. ill have to look deeper in to this
 
Could you describe the taste? I like stouts, but does this come off with a medicine flavor? I'm really want to give this a shot but am a bit apprehensive.
 
I have this cool book called sacred and herbal healing beers by stepen buhner

pretty cool. mugwort gives :fro: crazy dreams
 
At bottling, add Indian sarsaparilla and molasses to 1 qt water and boil 20 min. Bottle with oxygen-absorbing caps if possible.

I just made this and have an extra keg around. If I'm going to keg this beer, would you recommend doing the same (albeit less molasses?) and carbonate naturally in the keg?

If force carbonating, which I'm thinking I will do, what about making up a quart of molasses/sarsaparilla tea for a secondary for about a week?

The fermenter smells heavenly, I'm really excited.
 
I just made this and have an extra keg around. If I'm going to keg this beer, would you recommend doing the same (albeit less molasses?) and carbonate naturally in the keg?

If force carbonating, which I'm thinking I will do, what about making up a quart of molasses/sarsaparilla tea for a secondary for about a week?

The fermenter smells heavenly, I'm really excited.

how did it turn out?
 
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!

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.

Thank goodness you reposted this from gruitale.com, as the domaine expired. I made this and everyone who tries it loves it. I'm running low and need to make more. Thanks.
 
Did you prime it as high as it says or go with something closer to a normal scotch ale? 4.5 vol seems like way too much for bottling.
 
Thanks I will probably go with the recommended amount. I did some more digging and it looks like blackstrap molasses has a much lower sugar count than the regular molasses found in the priming sugar calculators.
 
I would want to keg this. Would you still use the blackstrap as a bottling agent rather than super carbonating? Also the T in the ingredients for sarsaparilla would that be teaspoon or tablespoon
 
I would want to keg this. Would you still use the blackstrap as a bottling agent rather than super carbonating? Also the T in the ingredients for sarsaparilla would that be teaspoon or tablespoon

I honestly dont know how much of a difference it would make to use the black strap. I tasted this a couple days ago and it is a little too sweet for me. I bottled it and followed the recipe exactly. I used brewers best mugwort and weighed the amount out and I think that's why it wasn't as bitter as it should be. I would try to find some fresh mugwort at a hippie health store if I was going to do it again. It's not too sweet to drink as it is, but it could be better.

Also I boiled the molasses and mixed it in very well during bottling and still got some inconsistent carbonation. It's not really bad but a couple, 4, bottles came close to being bombs.
 
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