Mona Lisa 2024

===============================
8/20/2024

just brewed this. a list of screw ups :

• forgot to add phosphoric acid. calculated mash ph still seems in range though
  
• only bought 2 packs us04. added another pack of us05. prob needed a lot more andor a starter
  
• forgot to add oxygen
  
• it took a long time to collect all the wort and get it up to boiling....
  
• ...sparged 3 times split into inductions plate, did not boil as long as id hoped and ended up with too much wort. sparge less or boil longer
  
• i did boil some in the induction plate which helped
  
• ended up with more wort than i used to
  
• bumped hop addition from 1.5oz to 2oz
  
• efficiency was poorer than I'd hoped for 52%, more like 42%. may start to make sense to just do 1070 ish wort and just DME the rest
  1083 before DME (shouldve been 1096)
  1098 with 3lb DME
  ** 1117 with 6 total lb DME
  ===============================
  6/15/2024
  
  The 2023 version of this beer won a couple silver or bronze medals, and is at this point advancing to national homebrew competition finals. The judges complained about its harshness. I thought it lacked body, depth, and girth/thickness.
  
  This time, we will sub standard DME for wheat DME, and boil it a shit ton. Because of work schedule it might be as long as 8 hours.
  
  ===============================
  4/6/2023
  took FG of 1034 after 9 days. fermented pretty fast... this base beer may not be black enough, kinda brown looking. vaguely remember the last batch being that way but maybe forgot since it got blacker once it went into the barrel.
  
  updating OG to 1117 from brew day photos. should be 10.8% currently.
  
  ===============================
  3/29/2023
  brewed last night on igloo and digiboil + induction burner. did a full batch sparge (i mean, filled the igloo all way up) twice and got about 7 gallons of wort. first running was 1078 final runnings was 1060, that all without the DME. there was still more wort in the mash tun that couldve come out, probably couldve pulled more wort for the main batch or at least for a partigyle.
  
  got a little better than 50% efficiency. splitting up the wort def helped, was able to boil off 2 gallons in 2 hours which is more than i usually get with the digiboil.
  
  i used a pretty big slurry of s04 from the fridge from a british golden ale plus two cans of propper starter for a couple days before brew day. it looked like a ton of yeast.
  
  adjusting recipe according to the brew day output. if all goes well it could be above 11%. hoping for bigger body with the carapils and oatmeal.
  
  next time consider adding some wheat malt as well!! possibly wheat DME or LME!!!
  ===============================
  3/26/2023
  notes on next batch
  
  question is, to DME or not? will be brewing on digiboil which doesnt boil down so much so maybe it should be in consideration. also consider LME, although they make it annoying at the homebrew store....?
  
  making more mods to the grist, going all out for a thick beer, adding carapils and oats, will try to mash at 156...
  
  changing to english yeast. will probably use slurry from fridge with a starter
  
  ===============================
  3/26/2023
  (notes on previous 2022 batch)
  unclear on the notes below. if there was DME added i would estimate 10-11% otherwise probably 9.5%. the body is pretty thin. main issue with this beer is it stayed in the oak barrel way too long it just tastes like harsh wood. shouldve saved some on the side without to wood to evaluate separately.
  
  ===============================
  ???/2022
  Reading byo session to imperial article about imperial stou they suggest using brown sugar to get up to gravity I’d consider that. Also they mentioned double mash which I should def do it should def help since last time mash tun was maxed out and really too thick
  ===============================
  5/25/2022
  majore lapse in note taking. unclear the OG or abv of this beer. somewhere between 9.5 and 12% smh. The OG on brew day was 1095. however there was 3 lb DME added to the recipe separate from what was already in the grain bill making me think i added it later. correcting the efficiency to 55% for the 1095 OG then adding the DME gives 1.116 down to 1020 making it 12.5% not considering the whiskey.
  
  before today the efficiency was set at 50% not sure if that was corrected after brewday? not sure. leaving it there gives us 1.109 down to 1020 for 11.6%.
  
  maybe i put the 3lb in the recipe just to calculate what it would be but never actually put it in? if thats the case it would be 1095 down to 1020 for 9.4% abv
  
  ===============================
  2/28/2022
  Measured 1020 FG ...could that be right? That would be 80% attenuation for 11.6%. Its pretty brown and not black. Maybe there is more volume in there than I have here in recipe
  
  ===============================
  2/18/2022
  considering adding LME to boost grav...(thinking LME instead of DME might be easier to work with),...adjusted volume and turned up the projected attenuation
  
  ===============================
  2/16/2022
  last minute pulling out the oats. worried about stuck mash and wont be able to babysit....
  
  ===============================
  2/15/2022
  got water report updating to that, looks like ph will be a little high so adding a little phosphoric acid.
  
  thinking about mash. G40 is 11 gal in mash so we'll go 1 qt/lb mash thickness on 28 lbs grain. adding a line for DME in case we go to that later.
  
  looks like it will be a little over 7 gallons strike water and 5 gallons sparge water.
  
  pitching 1 jar of RVA 101 into almost a gallon of 1040 starter wort 2 days before. no stir plate.
  
  ===============================
  2/8/2022
  wondering if this will all fit in the GF. could possibly do it all in the cooler or split between the two.
  
  thinking about setting this up early in the day to mash during work and have it boil for 3 hours while i do dinner/bedtimes. setup the GF in the driveway if possible - will be a lot of steam.
  
  see big beer schedule https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gaWvnYevKP9I8mmRzW54MrnqfOVuWlsOEhzyezW-kaY/edit#gid=0
  
  ===============================
  1/16/2022
  adding notes to sparge strategy to try to achieve decent efficiency.
  adjusting yeast - use rva 132 plus 3L starter
  
  ===============================
  12/1/2021
  
• adding oats and removing DME for now.
  adjusting recipe for 65% efficiency and trying to hit 10%abv counting the oats as zero points contribution.
  probably want to use a grain bag if possible
  ** remember to take preboil gravity, and throughout. maybe last 10 minutes of the boil take gravity and decide whether or not to throw in some DME
  
• adjusting to 2 hour boil
  
• will plan to double mash.
  not sure the plan for that because g40 will be maxed out at 10g preboil and thats without grain
  ...maybe just take the first mash out and put the 2nd one in. then take it out and sparge to get to volume? will be leaving behind sugars in first mash...
  ** ...alternatively sparge both mashes. after first mash and sparge and mash is pulled, should have about 6-7 gallons, that should leave enough space to drop the 2nd mash in. when that comes out, i would think we'd then have 5-6 gallons left. and will have to sparge to get the rest of the way. 2nd mash will have absorbed some of the 1st mash wort so it should probably be richer in the end for more sparging?
  ===============================
  11/3/2021
  
  RECIPE REBUILD
  
• reducing roasted barley from 1.25 down to 0.5
  
• reducing black patent from 1.25 to 0.5
  ** wanted to use less but keeping it here to get within SRM for style
  
• adding 1lb 120L for flavor and body
  
• get rid of the fricking kviek!!! change to london3
  
• adjusting efficiency to 70% :
  going to 2 hour boil
  im now on G40 which has been doing 2gal/hr so we'll go from 10g down to 6 during a 2 hour boil
  
  for yeast would need rva 132 200B pack and a 2L starter or equivalent
  
  todo :
  
• need to figure out yeast requirements (packs, starters...)
  
• consider oats
  its 21 lb grain...consider double mash
  ...if double mash consider more base grain and less DME
  ** any changes to grain bill, try to keep abv at 10%...
  
  
  ===============================
  11/2/2021
  this brew came out tasting funky again. submitted to JRHB dominion cup they said umami and i think that is correct. This is the third time this has happened to varying degrees, I previously thought it might be bad ingredients but I think hothead and/or too much roasted malt is to blame...
  
  ===============================
  5/1/21
  Not sure what happened only came to 1.100 OG even after the 2 hour boil and DMe. It was 1075 before the DME.
  
  Last minute adding 2 lb base malt and reducing DME. Gonna play by ear how much dme to add
  ===============================
  4/30/21
  booting this back up for big brew day with ryan tomorrow. we are doing two 5 gallon mash sparges into my 15 gallon kettle to boil all at once so that could change things. im expecting better efficiency even without the dry malt extract. plan to boil 90 minutes, check gravity, then potentially add 3 or 6 lbs total DME for the 10 gallon batch. i think we will need 14 gallons to start, boil down to 11 or 11.5, leave 1 behind for trub.
  ===============================
  5/25/2020
  FG 1.036 (cold sample)
  appears the starter wasnt necessary and didnt do anything anyway. Hit an official 10%
  ===============================
  5/11/2020
  SG 1.036 - made a 2x starter from a new hothead pack and tossed half of it into the batch.
  ===============================
  5/2/2020
  SG 1.041
  ===============================
  4/27/2020
  SG 1.045 fermented like crazy the first couple days just off the kveik pack no starter.
  ===============================
  4/16/2020
  brew day. Idk what just happened I hit 1.112 and high volume really, couldnt tell exact because of the foam but maybe it was only 5. I guess eff prob goes up if u add a lot of DME. This could be disaster or awesome
  ===============================
  4/15/2020
  just changing the batch size from 6.5 down to 5.5 and taking the 2row down from 15lb to 12lb to still arrive at 10%. considering using kviek yeast for this....
  
  ===============================
  3/24/2020
  revamping this for another attempt. shamefully adding dme and predicting over 70 eff to land at 10%. other than that no real changes. worried it might be too bitter hoppy? would like to NOT split the batch and just do 2 vanilla beans. bourbon oak would be nice but i feel that the failure of the last batch was from trying to do too much at once.
  ===============================
  9/30/19
  brewed this on the road, came out with more than 6 gallons at 1.080 which was a mistake shouldve boiled longer. also used some old hops which may be putting off strange flavors.
  
  9/23/19
  base recipe is Stone RIS clone found in byo magazine. recipe is scant, and doesnt really add up : https://byo.com/recipe/stone-imperial-russian-stout-clone/ . posted recipe is for 65% efficiency so actually less efficient than my system but i added a pound more base malt anyway to try to get over 10%abv. yeast is a little unclear wlp002 listed 65-70% attenuation so we will have to be perfect and hit 70% to get over 10%abv. but then this amounts to 1030 FG, recipe is listed at 1020. could use wlp007 english dry ale if hittin FG was a concern but i think extra sweetness in this beer is going to be ok.
  
  ==========MISC NOTES=============
  mona lisa stout
  
  ORANGE
  austin homebrew
  http://austinhomebrew.com/assets/images/RCPPDF/09611.pdf
  1/4oz bitter
  1/2oz sweet
  
  https://brewgr.com/recipe/59297/chocolate-orange-stout-oatmeal-stout-recipe
  fresh orange peel and juice
  (essentially a whole orange)
  
  mrbeer
  https://www.mrbeer.com/barleys-brew-chocolate-orange-stout
  4oz bakers unsweetened chocolate
  2 medium oranges
  take off the skins but not too much pith
  they soak skins in 1/2 cup vodka, adding allof it
  maybe use a thin glass so the vodka covers more
  
  final thoughts
  use the brewers peel sweet and bitter, soak in vodka with vanilla bean
  use thin glass
  add the whole thing
  optional : plus the orange juice
  
  
  CHERRY
  austin homebrew
  http://austinhomebrew.com/assets/images/RCPPDF/02071.pdf
  cherry flavoring
  
  AHA
  https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/homebrew-recipe/choc-full-o-cherry-porter/
  frozen sour cherries
  
  HBT
  https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/chocolate-cherry-stout.326884/
  cherry juice concentrate
  might be better in reducing sugar and other flavors....
  
  final stand
  a) i guess prob just use frozen cherries. not sour! sweet/dark any other kind than sour
  b) cherry juice concentrate? how sour?
  Dark cherries. Aha recipe calls for 5 to 10 lb per 10 gal batch. I think I will go with 5. For split batch 3.333