Entry #2 in my Recipe Review Series. The Series is about each of my basic 20 recipes of my home brewery “Cockatrice Brewery.” I brewed this beer today! (March 11, 2026).
Recipe #2: Morgana’s Mystical Merkin
Base Beer Style: (20C) Imperial Stout
(BJCP) Style: 33B (Specialty Wood-aged Beer)
Description: The base beer style is an American Imperial Stout. Originally an English-style, it has been a “craft beer” favorite in the USA almost since the kick-off of the current craft revolution. The American style will typically have more finishing hops, bitterness, and roasted character. To make mine a “specialty wood-aged beer,” I made my own White Oak staves and “charred” them on my BBQ grill. I then soaked them in Maker’s Mark Bourbon for three days (~3 ounces). I put them in at the end of my dry hopping for 3 days (I add any leftover bourbon from the soak). The name is a combination of themes / references. I live in a neighborhood called “Magic Estates” on a street named “Merlin Court.” “Morganna,” in traditional mythology, is King Arthur’s sister. Firestone Walker made an Imperial Oatmeal Stout called the Velvet Merlin (with the Barrel-aged Version called the Velvet Merkin). I modeled this version (slightly) after theirs (no oatmeal in mine), I decided to follow along with their playful name. My version is very full-bodied (I use wheat malt), slightly higher in ABV (~9 to 10%), and drier with more chocolate/roast character.
My Brewfather recipe: Morganna’s
Basic ingredients were: 1) Simpson’s Golden Promise (Pale Ale) Malt and 2) Northern Brewer / East Kent Goldings Hops.
Today, I brewed the 8th edition of Morganna’s Mystical Merkin. It looks like it’s going to come in between 10.7% and 11% ABV. Wow! Before I even got brewing today, I made a massive starter two days ago to give my yeast a chance to tackle the giant gravity I expected in this beer.
This beer always pushes my Brewtools B40 to its limit. Today, I made a slight modification to the recipe and lowered the grain bill to a measly 17-lbs grain 🙂 With my system, I mashed for approximately 90-minutes at a temperature range of 147–150°F. My final numbers show it was worth the effort! I held off until about 15 minutes were left in the mash and then added my Black Malt. Once through with the sparge, I ended up with a pre-boil gravity of 1.077 on 6.45 gallons of wort—before any extract was even added.
To move this into the “Arthurian Mystical realm of Stouts” (11% Imperial Stout), I added a total of 4.5 lbs of DME (3 lbs traditional dark and 1.5 lbs of Bavarian wheat). This is one of my changes — I replaced 1.5 lbs of Wheat Malt with the 1.5 lbs of Bavarian wheat DME. These additions put the pre-boil gravity well over 1.100. During my 90-minute boil I added a ton of hops (over 7.5 ounces!!) to help balance that massive malt bill.
Even with that add, the IBUs are still around 81 … hopefully the bourbon staves will have room to shine.
I chilled the wort to 68°F and achieved a near-perfect Original Gravity of 1.1075. If my final gravity hits around 1.026, I’ll be pretty close to the 11% mark. I’m going to have to bottle this in small bottles. haha. I find the flavor already incredible—rich, chocolatey, and roasty.
What’s Next? My Stout is now fermenting vigorously on a healthy 410 billion cell pitch of Nottingham yeast. It will spend 10 days in primary before I move it onto the Maker’s Mark bourbon staves for a slow 5-day secondary to build that signature oak and whiskey complexity.
The first beer brewed under my new Brewery’s name! I call that a success! Biervergnügen, indeed!
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