Quick question. I’m a batch sparger and I seem to achieve a better efficiency with a higher water to grist ratio. Today I mashed with a 1.9 qt/lb ratio and achieved a 78% efficiency. Generally I’m closer to a 1.5 qt/lb ratio and a 73% efficiency. Is there anything to this or should I look in another direction to explain the jump.
I mill my own and haven’t changed the settings. PH was at 5.6 (a little high).
I have found the same thing. It wasn’t a huge increase for me, but going from 1.25-1.3 qt./lb. to 1.75 did increase my efficiency a bit.
Higher efficiency is a common effect of mashing thinner.
Awesome article, if you haven’t seen it:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Effects_of_mash_parameters_on_fermentability_and_efficiency_in_single_infusion_mashing#Mash_thickness
But what’s the effect on flavor? Are there any tests of the same recipe/same equipment using thicker/thinner mash?
i don’t know that anyone has put together a formal testing scheme but i have heard some claims by some that they think their beer tastes better to them when they don’t try to go overboard on just efficiency
I wondered about other effects as well. The only reason I went that high was to balance (within a gallon) the volume of water in my mash and sparge.
Somewhat related. I mash in a 48 qt cooler and have to drop my ratio to about 1.25 qt/lb when making a big beer like Denny’s BVIP. When I do that my efficiency will drop to about 70-71%. Is that just the lower water ratio or is it just more difficult to wash that much sugar out of the tun?
I’m not a pro so efficiency isn’t that big of a deal to me except that I would like consistency/predictability so that when I’m brewing for competition I am not adjusting on the fly like yesterday to stay within the style guidelines. Otherwise not that big of a deal.
Thanks
I try to get my mash and sparge as balanced I can too. I batch sparge, and I can definitely tell a taste difference between a thin mash and only one round of sparging, or a thick mash and having to sparge twice. I get more grainy off-flavors when I sparge two+ times, and that’s with pre-acidified sparge water.
Sometimes the second round of sparging will drop the gravity too low, but at that point it’s either take the runnings and hope for the best or take a lot less gravity and volume.
It’s based on German brewing techniques, where thinner mashes are favored to preserve the flavor of delicate lagers. One goal of a thinner mash is to reduce the tannin extraction that can increase with larger sparge volumes.
The thinner mashes also allowed the mash to be pumped easily, which comes in handy for decoctions, which was traditional in German brewing.
Anecdotally, and based on my own experience of many batches, I can tell you that I have found no effect on flavor.
after reading this thread and lamenting my own mash inefficiencies, I decided to up my ratio yesterday. it made no effect.
15.5 pounds of grain, beersmith recommended 19.38 quarts of water. I always round up to the nearest gallon anyway (five), but I figured I’d bump it up to a full 24 quarts. still stuck at 60%. granted, that’s still only ~1.5 qt/pound. maybe today I’ll get it closer to 1.75 qt/pound and see if that helps?
edit: my mash temp was a spot on 150 deg and 5.3 pH at the start, I stirred several times throughout, and ended up at 148 by the end of the sixty minute mash. I sparged with 185 degree water and noticed the sparge was only 165, so maybe that was part of my problem? initial runoff was 1.060m OG after boil was 1.066.
I don’t think a hotter sparge would help much, if at all. I’m betting it’s your crush.
Have you tried adding a half hour to your mash time? It will tell you right away if its your crush. And it’s the easiest thing to do -which is nothing- for 30 minutes.
used my barley crusher for the first time yesterday, and the crush looked pretty damn fine. I’ll give the mash today an extra half hour, see if that helps.
Or tighten the gap on your mill.
the grist looks more pulverized than I’ve ever had from a HBS mill. factory default 0.039. does this picture show anything?
photostream (445 KB)
How much water are you losing to dead space and grain absorption in the mash tun?
how do I calculate that? I’m using a ten gallon round igloo cooler with a 12" false bottom.
total water in - water out is what is left in the grain absorption/dead space