Morganna’s Mystical Merkin (M3): A Bourbon-Oaked Imperial Stout

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Stumblingpiper

Today I brewed the M3. This is the sixth iteration of this one. My friend, Mike, and I brewed the original of this one back in 2018. This was on my old brew set up. His recipe was out of this world. We really enjoyed that beer … my only problem was I couldn’t find the recipe the next time I wanted to brew it! Haha.

I didn’t get around to brewing it in 2019 (I was still enjoying all the bottles from the previous batch). I used Maker’s Mark Bourbon in this first batch and all following batches. In that first one I used “small french oak” blocks I was given from a local supplier. I soaked the chips (but didn’t char them).

In 2020 and 2021, I crafted a recipe and bounced it off Mike. He said it sounded good–I used my French Oak Blocks again in 2020 but I made a mistake and bought pre-soaked (bourbon) chips for 2021. I found that I had the wrong kind of oxidation in that batch. They both were so big that they blew out the fermenter each time! I brewed these two batches on my old system. I think the 2021 batch was the last one before the new system arrived!

In 2022, I brewed it for the first time on the new system. This time, I made my own “oak staves.” I bought some American Oak, cut them to length, and then charred them on my grill. I soaked them in Maker’s Mark and then dropped them in to the secondary fermentation. I found that 3 days was just about the right length of time for that. I used those staves in 2023 and plan on using them again on this batch.

In 2022, I put 20 pounds of grain in my new brew system to make the Imperial Stout–it was too much! I was lucky to have some DME to use in the boil to boost up my gravity to make it an imperial stout. Last year and this year, I used around 18 pounds of grain (still too much) and added 3 pounds of Traditional Dark DME.

This year’s batch definitely has the viscosity appropriate for an Imperial Stout. The gravity was up around 1.095 … pretty happy all the way around.

About 3 weeks, and the sixth iteration of the Merkin will be available for all to enjoy! 🙂

Beer Mentor

My Recipe Library: Ziggy Brau in the Beer Fridge!

Posted on February 19, 2024 by Stumblingpiper

The photo above is a current snapshot of the Ziggy Brau beers I have in my beer refrigerator. Several years ago, Volkswagen had a commercial talking about Fahrvergnügen. It basically meant “Driving Pleasure.” Here’s a link to one of the commercials. In a fit of creativity, I came up with this slogan for my beer fridge (and made it my Ziggy Brau slogan): “Biervergnügen in der Flasche.” It’s German for “Beer pleasure in the bottle.” To keep that “Biervergnügen” going, I’ve developed a brewing schedule to keep a plethora of different beers available in the fridge.

As I posted earlier, I standardized my brew setup and have now developed a pretty consistent brew routine/process. I’m pretty settled now on a Library of 20 Beers. There are three below that are not highlighted — I haven’t developed those recipes yet. The rest are in the library, and as you can see above, several are in the fridge!

This list covers all the styles I like to drink:

Belgian Lambic-style Ale (Name: Hefenebel [Translation – Yeast Galaxy]). This is a continuing experiment — I just brewed the third version of it and will be making a Gueuze out of it at the end of this year! Oh, I also make a Fruited-Lambic (Name: La Prugna) with locally-grown plums. So (a) Lambic, (b) Gueuze, and (c) Fruit Lambic.
Belgian-style Blond (Name: Keoni Blond). I brewed the first iteration of this beer on the day my grandson was born! April 11, 2021. Version 2 and 3 were right around his birthday as well. I love this beer — great flavor/color.
Belgian-style IPA (Name: St Hommel). This is my attempt to clone the Hommelbier from Leroy Breweries in Belgium. I’m taking a trip there this year so I want to gather some notes on the flavor to use in adjusting my recipe. Would like to narrow it down and nail this one. I like the current version, but I’m just not convinced the hops are right yet.
Orval Clone (Name: Valle Dorado) — my favorite beer — my clone is so close in flavor–I’m just off on color now–next iteration should dial it in!
Monastic-style Dubbel (Name: Dubbel Trubbel). My Trappist-style Dubbel (Westmalle / Chimay clone). This one is very nice, but I haven’t made it in a couple of years. Looking at later this year (early winter, possibly)
Monastic-style Tripel (Name: Die Drie Draken) My last Tripel was a little under-carbonated — I put it in the cold storage too soon. Flavor was nice. Gonna be a do-over–maybe 2025.
Belgian/Monastic Dark Strong Ale (Name: Drakengeist) Also known as a Belgian Quad. This beer turned out very well (and has aged very well). I still have a few–need to work it back into the schedule …
Belgian-style Pale Ale (Name: Merlin’s Magical Elixir). I made two of these right in a row. The first one not so great, but the second one was nice. It is coming up again on the radar!
Baltic Porter (Name: Polly Porter). I brewed this beer last year on my second grand-child’s birthday! Yum. I will be brewing it again this year. What I like about this one is that I can use the left over ingredients from my Barrel-aged Imperial Stout.
Bourbon-oaked Imperial Stout (Name: Morganna’s Mystical Merkin) This beer has been great–I’ll do a whole post on this one later (Brewing again in March 2024). I char my own oak staves and soak them in Maker’s Mark Bourbon. This will be the fifth iteration — it just keeps getting better. I have a bottle from each of the last 3 years (I think). Time for a vertical tasting!
American Brown Ale (Name: Big Brown Beer) I made this one and it ended up having Brett in it. Still tasted good, but want a do over as well So far (fingers crossed), this is the only cross-contaminated beer I’ve had in my brewery. I should have called it “Big Brown Brett Beer.” haha.
(Imperial) American-style IPA (Name: Wedding IPA). I made this beer in 2016 to celebrate our wedding and have made it four times since. Sometimes it is just big enough for a Imperial IPA and other times my mash efficiency keeps it in the IPA category.
German-style Pilsner (Name: OK Premium Pils). This is a mid-winter beer for me to make — so it can lager into the early spring summer. This year I made the Eis-bock instead. OK stands for Okanagan (where I live), but also “OK” in the sense of OK. I found it funny using OK and Premium together.
German-style Weizen Doppelbock/Eis-bock (Name: Frosty Billy). See previous post on this one. I really liked the flavor of this as a Weizen Doppelbock — but making the Eis-bock is fun, too. I might alternate them (every third year with the Pils)
German-style Dunkel Weizen (Name: TBD). This is a beer in initial design phase. I have a smoked-pecan weizen recipe I really like … I might make it again as part of this recipe.
Irish-style Red Ale (Name: Auburn Sunset). This is a collaboration I did with Kelowna Brewing Company — think Kilkenny or Smithwicks. It turned out nice — we are still working on this one to dial in the recipe.
English-style Strong Bitter (Name: The Finger). Another collaboration with Kelowna Brewing Company. This one has turned out great — it’s been brewed a few times now. Ask me about the name over a beer. haha.
Finnish-style Sahti (Name: Surreal Sahti). My experimental Finnish beer — turned out very nice–want to reduce the amount of liquid, bump up the rye and add a little more juniper next year. This will be a yearly brew (around December). Will make less than 3 gallons because it needs to be consumed fresh!
Flanders-style Red Ale (Name: TBD). Work in progress.
English-style Barley Wine (Name: TBD). Work in progress.

My schedule so far this year (2024) is quite full! Brewing approximately nine different beers.

2 Jan – Surreal Sahti
21 Jan – Frosty Billy
11 Mar – Morganna’s Mystical Merkin
11 Apr – Keoni Blond
12/13 Apr – Attend Penticton Fest of Ale
9 May – Polly Porter
23/24 May – Brew St Hommel with Sierra Nevada Brewing
Jun (TBD) – Valle Dorado
Oct (TBD) – St Hommel
6 Dec – Lambic #4 (Gueuze #1)

Frosty Billy: My Aventinus Eis-bock Clone …

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Stumblingpiper

My favorite German Beer is the Schneider-Weisse Aventinus (Weizen Doppelbock). It is a BIG beer and has an awesome flavor. You will see several posts here on my blog about this beer. I’ve enjoyed a tour of the brewery, attended the Aventinus Festival in Kelheim, and generally have determined that it is definitely an A++ beer.

A Weizen Bock is a strong wheat ale. Weizen in German means “Wheat.” The term Bock is more nebulous but really, in this sense, means “Strong Ale.” Another meaning for Bock is “He Goat.” That’s why on most traditional bock beers, you will find the image of a Goat (or Ram). Here are a couple of examples:

However, on Weizen Bocks, the label usually references some historical figure or religious saint … in Schneider’s instance, it is Aventinus, a (local to Kelheim, Germany) historical figure. Aventinus is actually called a Doppelbock — meaning an extremely strong (over 8% ABV) beer.

From Schneider’s Aventinus beer comes the Aventinus “Eis-bock.” An “Eis-bock” is made from “freeze distillation” — a fermenting “wort” (in this instance the Aventinus beer) is frozen and the ice is removed. In this instance, to get to 12% for Aventinus Eis-bock, they remove approximately 31.6% of the water content.

If you’ve had a Weizen beer, you recognize that the flavors/aromas are typically a sweet malt character supported with Banana esters and Clove phenols. These are yeast derived characters that support the sweet malt character and make Weizens some of the tastiest of beers (in my opinion). Making it even stronger requires great balance and skill — something Schneider demonstrates time and again. Both of these beers are the best examples (see here) and that’s why I wanted to try and clone them.

To get the big beer I wanted in my current brew setup, I had to use some dry malt extract with my other grains. I used what I called a “fake decoction” process (a step mash really) and an open fermentation to try and match the ester/phenol character in the Weizen doppelbock. I think I hit it pretty well–ending up with an 8.7% beer. Then, I tried the freeze distillation — my target was to remove about 27.5% of the ice to get to that 12% ABV level. I was not patient enough and only removed about 8% of the ice … ending up with a 9.5% ABV “Eis-bock.”

Because I didn’t have any patron saint or historical figure in mind to name my beer after, I took the traditional meaning of Bock and a winter theme and came up with “Frosty Billy.” Here are the two beers compared side-by-side.

The one on the left is my Eis-Bock — the one on the right is the Aventinus. The middle, single glass is the Aventinus … so clear! Mine is the one on the right. Both have really good flavor. I can tell the Aventinus is aged — it has a great oxidized character of plums/raisins/molasses. So good! The flavor/alcohol are balanced nicely. The flavors are there in mine — since it’s only been in the bottle for a week or so it needs time. In another couple of months, it should really be entering its prime!

I really enjoyed making this beer … I’m hoping it will be my annual February Beer. We’ll see.

Beer Mentor

Ziggy Brau: The Beers!

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Stumblingpiper

My “new” brewery is now more than two years old … and I’ve been brewing away on it!

The Brewtools B40 — their smallest (40L) integrated system — has really worked well for me. I will say that every comment I’ve seen on reviews are spot on — if you don’t know the process you are using and you don’t have a good idea why you do certain things in the process, you will be a little challenged. The only issue I’m having (currently) with my system is mash efficiency — it has been in the60 to 70 percent area … I’d like to get it up closer to 80 percent. I’m changing up my grain crush now to see how that goes. In the meantime, I’ve been using the recipe scaler on the brewfather app and it is helping me hit my targets.

My focus the last couple of years (as mentioned previously) is on German and Belgian-style beers (and a couple of miscellaneous American-styles). So far I’m having excellent success with my process, my equipment, and my ingredients—only one of my recent beers didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

Here is my current library of beers:

Belgian-style Blond (second/third editions of this one!). I brewed the first iteration of this beer on the day my grandson was born! April 11, 2021. Version 2 and 3 were right around his birthday as well. [ 1a — is a Brett one off from my extra wort]
(Double) American-style IPA (fourth iteration). I brewed the original version of this for my wedding and have continued to make it.
Belgian-style Pale Ale. I made two of these right in a row. The first one not so great, but the second one was nice. It is coming up again on the radar!
Barrel-aged Imperial Stout (Yum — 3rd iteration!). This beer has been great–I’ll do a whole post on this one later.
Belgian Lambic-style Ale. This is a continuing experiment — I just brewed the third version of it and will be making a Gueuze out of it at the end of this year! Oh, I also make a Fruited-Lambic with locally-grown plums.
German-style Pilsner. This is a mid-winter beer for me to make — so it can lager into the early spring summer. This year I’ll be substituting the following beer for it instead.
German Eis-bock. Another entry on this beer (quite involved). lol.
Belgian/Monastic Dark Strong Ale –– also known as a Belgian Quad. This beer turned out very well (and has aged very well).
Monastic-style Dubbel and Tripel. These two were also good. The Tripel was a little under-carbonated — I put it in the cold storage too soon. Flavor was nice. Both do overs!
Baltic Porter — I brewed this beer last year on my second grand-child’s birthday! Yum.
Belgian-style IPA — I brewed this one to make a clone of the Poperinge Hommelbier. It’s close — I need to work on my dry hopping … flavor and color are awesome.
American Brown –– I made this one and it ended up having Brett in it. Still tasted good, but want a do over as well. haha.
Orval Clone — my favorite beer — my clone is so close in flavor–I’m just off on color now–next iteration should dial it in!
Sahti — My experimental Finnish beer — next on tap for brewing! Stay tuned.