water to grain ratio and efficiency question
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water to grain ratio and efficiency question
Will I get better efficiency using a higher water/grain ratio when mashing with more grains? I typically get 75-78% efficiency brewing most standard gravity beers. I just want to make sure I can get my next brew to fit in my tun.
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I don't think I understand your question. A higher water/grain ratio would mean more water per pound of grain and would make your mash take up more space. Do you mean a lower water/grain ratio? Either way, I don't think the water/grain ratio has much impact on efficiency but it will supposedly impact fermentability. In practice, I've never noticed a difference in fermentability due to the water/grain ratio.
If you want to know if everything will fit in your tun, here's a good resource:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see the "Can I Mash It?" calculator.
I also generally get lower efficiency on my bigger beers. I'm pretty sure that's because I collect the same amount of wort in my kettle regardless of the amount of grain. With more grain it doesn't get as thoroughly rinsed so you get lower efficiency. I suppose I could collect more wort and boil longer, but I just add grain to compensate. That's how it works on my system, yours may be different. On my system I'd expect 79% efficiency on a 1.055 beer and maybe more like 70% on a 1.100 beer.
If you want to know if everything will fit in your tun, here's a good resource:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml
Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see the "Can I Mash It?" calculator.
I also generally get lower efficiency on my bigger beers. I'm pretty sure that's because I collect the same amount of wort in my kettle regardless of the amount of grain. With more grain it doesn't get as thoroughly rinsed so you get lower efficiency. I suppose I could collect more wort and boil longer, but I just add grain to compensate. That's how it works on my system, yours may be different. On my system I'd expect 79% efficiency on a 1.055 beer and maybe more like 70% on a 1.100 beer.
Yeah I'm using the calculator to make sure everything fits.
I was just curious what changing the water/grain ratio does as I've never really gave it much though. I just change the numbers to make sure my dough-in quarts or gallons come out to an 'even' number to make measuring easier. I was just curious if having a thinner or thicker mash made much of a difference.
The Flanders I'm doing will be using 25.5# of grain assuming 70% efficiency. As long as the lid doesn't take up too much space I think I'll be just fine.
I was just curious what changing the water/grain ratio does as I've never really gave it much though. I just change the numbers to make sure my dough-in quarts or gallons come out to an 'even' number to make measuring easier. I was just curious if having a thinner or thicker mash made much of a difference.
The Flanders I'm doing will be using 25.5# of grain assuming 70% efficiency. As long as the lid doesn't take up too much space I think I'll be just fine.
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