I wanted to see how alot of you guys adjust your water ratios from batch to batch. I read that alot of folks keep the same mash water ratio (i.e. 1.33 qt/lb) and then I'm assuming just use the amount of sparge water needed to achieve their target preboil. For lower gravity brews this would force you to use a good bit more sparge water than mash water.
I don't do this, rather I aim to equalize my mash water to my sparge water. This gives me mash water anywhere from 1.33 to 1.75 qt/lb or so (1.75 for lower gravity brews). So in effect, the larger my grainbill, the lower my qt/lb ratio is. I don't really vary past those ratios though, if I need to go past it, I just allow the mash/sparge water ratio to drift. 1.25 is the lowest I've gone.
Any opinions? Which general method gives you the most consistent results in theory or reality?
Mine is really based more on the capacity of my mashtun. If im doing 20 pounds of grain ive got to lower my qt./lb. ratio to make it all fit. I like 2 qt./ lb. if i can fit it in the tun.
I keep the grain/water ratio consistently at 1 gal. h2o per 3 lbs. grain. If I change the ratio I have to consider the change in the strike temp. As far as the sparge water, I will fill the hlt with 10 gals. and will sparge until I have a beginning volume of 13.5 gals. in the boil pot.
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I keep my mash ratio fixed but I do stay cognizant of the grain bill to avoid over sparging. If I have a really light grain bill, I'll retard my efficiency by infusing some sparge water prior to first runoff and only use a single bulk batch sparge.
I keep the mash ratio fixed, but I round off the strike water to an easily measurable volume. I never know what my sparge volume is because I almost always stop the fly sparge when the gravity drops below 1.010 rather than when I reach the required volume.
-a.
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I keep pretty close to the 1.33qt/lb rule, but will go up or down from there depending on the amount of body I desire. I haven't seen a big difference in body between 1.25qt/lb or 1.5qt/lb, but that's just what I do. I've tried mashing with 2.0qt/lb to get better efficiency (from another thread in brew science), but I got worse efficiency. I've gone back to my normal ratio, and that works great for me. YMMV!
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i do 1.25 to 1.3 and sparge till i hit 1.010 if i need more water that's easy to fix just add it to the boil. once you have your process and you know your equipment not worth messing with much.
mash water/sparge water ratios
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