I used to use 1.3 qt/lb most of the time, but went with 1 qt/lb when I made my ESB because which was recommended in Ray Daniel’s book when I started brewing the style. The ESB mash was really thick and my efficiency was OK but not really what I expected. I changed all of my recipes to at least 1.5 qts/lb and found that worked better for my RIMS system. YMMV.
I have found thinner mashes will give me a few extra clicks in efficiency. But since I full-volume, no-sparge BIAB, mash thickness is out of my hands. Grain absorption and boil length essentially set my strike volume and water:grist ratio for me.
Now on some smaller beers, I’ll shoot past my recipe’s pre-boil gravity estimate and just reduce the length of my boil to compensate and hit target OG.
“In terms of beer quality, thick vs thin doesn’t really matter. Use whatever works for you.”
Yes, I understand doing what works best for me. However, I want to understand how/why of thin vs thick as I’ve not found, until I read thru the link a a prior post, an explanation.
same, thinner gives better efficiency pretty reliably for me
unrelated sort of but it has been forever since i checked the gravity of the pre-boil wort… it always feels like an additional hassle, especially just cooling down that small volume of wort to a temp you can check with a hydrometre… right?? any thoughts or methods?
Post mash, I stick about 8oz of wort in the freezer and 25 minutes later I’m usually close enough temp wise to get a reliable hydrometer reading just before the boil. I’ll make adjustments then if necessary. Personally, I find taking a post boil gravity reading (OG) LESS important than a pre-boil. If I’m off post boil, not much I can do about it then.
And no, I don’t have a refractometer, nor do I have plans to buy one.
I use a digital refractometer. No cooling needed. Before that, I would put a small sample in a metal cocktail shaker and swirl it in a bowl of ice water. Less than 60 seconds to cool to reading temp.
Because it varies depending on your equipment and goals. What kind of system do you use? Do you want to do batch, fly, or no sparge brewing? Just a few considerations.
My guess is that it’s a holdover from the early days of homebrewing when everything was based on how commercial breweries do it. I’m sure mash thickness comes into play with things like lautering at the commercial scale. With things like batch sparge, BIAB and all-in-ones at the homebrew scale it’s not really a concern.
I suspect that it also impacts infusions to step mash a batch and allows for calculations of the step additions. There is an article by Ashton Lewis in the current BYO magazine that discusses mash thickness as a ratio and how to utilize it in the context of various mash regimens.
I put the sample (4 oz) in a metal cocktail shaker and swirl it in a bowl of ice water. Down to temp in 60 seconds or less. And I wait til the wort has just reached a boil to be sure it’s mixed well.
“I put the sample (4 oz) in a metal cocktail shaker and swirl it in a bowl of ice water. Down to temp in 60 seconds or less. And I wait til the wort has just reached a boil to be sure it’s mixed well.”
Some software wants a gravity reading at first runnings and before boil for efficiency calculations.
I use 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain as I can do the math in my head. I brew 10 gallon batches.
Say I am using 20 lbs. of malt. Heat up 30 qts aka 7.5 gallons of strike water. Malt absorbs 0.5 qt/lb., so I will collect 20 qts or 5 gallons. I want 13 gallons for the boil, so I heat 8 gallons of water for the batch sparge addition. It keeps things simple.