I’ve been doing some searching on-line and haven’t found an adequate answer to this question:
Is there a chart/table that outlines water to grist ratios for the different styles of beer?
I’ve read a lot about people’s personal preferences for the ratios, and that people sometimes experience a higher efficiency with a thinner mash.
I’m asking because I’m rebrewing a witbier this weekend and I would like to use a thinner mash than my usual 1.25qts/lb, but I don’t know how high I should go. I have the capability to do a 2qts/lb with my 10 gal Blichmann Boilermaker MLT and a 10 pound grain bill.
I don’t think there are any standards by style. At least I have never found any.
You can sometimes find some cool historical descriptions of brewing practices on the internet with some searching. Check out the Shut Up About Barclay Perkins blog.
I mash pretty thin when possible. Sometimes, with a big beer it’s jut not possible to fit enough water in my tun for 4 l/kg but I do aim for that. That also tends to mean that my first addition is half my pre-boil plus absorbtion and my mashout, second step, or sparge is the other half of the pre-boil.
When I first started doing all grain, I was using the “standard” 1.25qt/lb ratio. After about 6 months, I switched to 2qt/lb and my efficiency went from the mid-high 70’s to the low 80’s. I’ve recently done ratios at 1.5/lb and my efficiency was just over 82%, so not much of a difference with 1.5/lb and 2/lb. I haven’t gone back and tried a mash of 1.25/lb, so maybe it was something else that changed my efficiency, however, the grist ratio was the only factor that I changed.
Also, with my batch sparge/ cooler system, when I use 2qt/lb I get equal amounts of first runnings (mash) and second runnings (sparge). When I was using 1.25qt/lb, I was getting a much lower amount of first runnings than compared to the second.
I BIAB/No-Sparge. While I don’t have enough data points to make an across-the-board generalization, I have brewed a couple of smaller beers recently and I’m seeing a decrease in efficiency when my mash gets thinner than about 3 qt/lb. I’m kind of curious if anyone else who mashes this thin has noticed a dropoff once you hit a certain point.
I don’t go quite that thin till all my water is in, not doing BIAB. but I can see that if you got to a really thin mash it would take a lot longer for conversion to complete as the same amount of enzyme is spread more thinly throughout the mash.
If you are using brunwater or other, you’ll see that the water to grist ratio of mash can also be modified to hit a desired ph. I sometimes mash at 1.25 or up to 1.85 qts per pound depending on my grist, brewing salts, and desired ph.
Kia has pointed out that Germans mash thin. I have read some old British writings and they seemed to mash thick, but then do several different mashings much like batch sparging but with different temps and rest times.
Me I tend to mash thin, around 2 qt/lb. I try to have two equal runoffs single batch sparging. I get lazy sometimes and just mash with five gallons and sparge with the grain absorption and boil off amount. It tends to be close for a five gallon batch.
I think a lot of this is anecdotal, unless you’re using hard math like Kai’s calculators offer.
I will +1 the idea of 1.5qt/lbs - 2qt/lbs as optimal for efficiency. Reading the posts here confirms for me why I keep beating the efficiency in some recipes by as much as +0.010
Efficiency is great and all, but there’s of course more variables. Pg.32 of Gordon Strongs’ Brewing Better Beer has some good reminders that mash temp, the type of sparge you intend to perform, and (as the original post mentioned) style are all important to consider.
I want to say that I’ve heard thinner mashes (more to the 2qt water-to-grist ratio) run the risk of lighter body in the finished product, and picking up more tannins from dark-roast grains. I’m not sure I’ve noticed that, but it’s also something to keep in mind. Maybe stick closer to the 1.25-1.5qt range for darker beers?
I’ve certainly run into trouble going lower than 1.25 quarts. For me the optimum ratio is 2 quarts. I guess it is theory reinforced with anecdotal evidence. After all, we gotta do the mash to see how it ultimately turns out no matter what we’ve read.
The dark-roast grain tannin extraction is interesting. Will have to think about that one…
I have manipulated only the salts and acid numbers in bru’n water. I never considered adjusting the water to grist ratio to hit a specified ph. More homework.
I’d guess that it’s becasue as you increase the amount of water you use, you decrease the amount of buffering you’ll get from the grain. If that’s the case, all you’d have to do would be to treat your water appropriately and you’d avoid problems.
It would be interesting to know how the diastatic agents in base malts buffer or “fill up” the solubility of the hot water (am I supposed to call it brewing liquor?) The question about steeping grains is a really good one - if there’s no base malt there, why aren’t we noticing the “thin mash tannin extraction” problem with that? Simply a case of volume - ie keep the mash ratio the same, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s base or speciality grains?
Is there something in the enzymatic activity of a full mash that prevents tannin extraction that isn’t there when steeping more heavily roasted malts?
And how many of us would travel back in time and study some serious organic chemistry in college, had we known how useful it would be?
Yeah, obviously there’s no guarantee that using more water will cause problems, but if you want to be safe it’s best to either control the amount you use or treat it to avoid problems.
