Mashing with less than 1 quart of water per lb of grain?

Im making an Oktoberfest, John Palmers recipe, and am wondering if I can use less than 1 quart of water per lb of grain? I mash in a cooler so after the third step I'm gonna have alot of water in my mash tun, leaving little room to spare.

That might be too thick of a mash. Lowest I would go is probably 1.20qt/lb

Sounds like an upgrade is in your future!

thrstyunderwater said:

Im making an Oktoberfest, John Palmers recipe, and am wondering if I can use less than 1 quart of water per lb of grain? I mash in a cooler so after the third step I'm gonna have alot of water in my mash tun, leaving little room to spare.

Click to expand...

Instead of doing step infusions, you could just do a single infusion mash and mash at a more traditional amount, to ensure proper pH and conversion.

CoalCracker said:

That might be too thick of a mash. Lowest I would go is probably 1.20qt/lb

Sounds like an upgrade is in your future!

Click to expand...

I've got a big cooler, I just want more room to spare. I ain't gonna upscale my system until I'm done with grad school

Or just pull some out, heat it, then add back in to hit your different step temps.

Yooper said:

Instead of doing step infusions, you could just do a single infusion mash and mash at a more traditional amount, to ensure proper pH and conversion.

Click to expand...

That's just too sensible...it'll never go over!

thrstyunderwater said:

Im making an Oktoberfest, John Palmers recipe, and am wondering if I can use less than 1 quart of water per lb of grain? I mash in a cooler so after the third step I'm gonna have alot of water in my mash tun, leaving little room to spare.

Click to expand...

What are the steps? I've mashed in at 0.75 qt/lb at 110F and got up about 153F (2 qt/lb) buy infusion - going to mashout using infusion would have been too much - think about boiling that portion (or skipping mashout) if that is a step that you're planning because conversion is finished. Boiling a large portion of the wort before conversion is finished will denature enzymes.

For some reason all step mash calculators never workout and I'd suggest heating up twice as much water as you think you need and using the leftover as part of your sparge water to not waste the heat put into it. Also check your total mash volume assuming you need more water than the calculators predict.

DELETED, somehow double posted

I don't think its a big problem to start with a fairly low water to grist ratio if you'll be adding infusions that will be thinning the ratio. I've done it that way in the past and felt it works well.

Decoction mash. True Octoberfests were made in this style anyway.

cockybitz said:

Decoction mash. True Octoberfests were made in this style anyway.

Click to expand...

Not so much so any more.