How thin of a mash is to thin

[olotti]

Brewing my first hefe Saturday and it consists of Ed Worts hefe recipe. It's

7lb wheat
4lb Pilsner
1lb rice hulls

Long story short is a 1.65qt/lb 5 gal mash in to thin for this. I usually do 1.33qt/lb but 4 gal will put me shorter than usually on my 1st running collection and Id then have to up my sparge water. I'd rather up the mash in water and lower the sparge water slightly don't know why just get a better feeling I'm getting all the sugars that way I guess. Any thoughts. I plan on doing a 90 min boil when usually I do a 60 so I'm collecting an .75 gal for my pre boil volume.

 

[Yooper]

Not at all. As long as you hit a proper mash pH, thickness doesn't matter.

Most of the time I use 1.5 quarts/pound, but sometimes go to 2 quarts/pound if I'm afraid I'm going to have lautering issues. I generally have to use more acid malt or some phosphoric acid in the mash if I'm using water with some alkalinity when I use a thinner mash, but it's not even all that different really.

 

[olotti]

Not at all. As long as you hit a proper mash pH, thickness doesn't matter.

Most of the time I use 1.5 quarts/pound, but sometimes go to 2 quarts/pound if I'm afraid I'm going to have lautering issues. I generally have to use more acid malt or some phosphoric acid in the mash if I'm using water with some alkalinity when I use a thinner mash, but it's not even all that different really.

Ok thanks yoop so looks like I should b fine and this shouldn't upset the mash ph AppleCart if all that much.

 

[MaxStout]

People who do BIAB commonly have very thin mashes. It's not unusual for those to go well beyond 2qt/lb.

 

[RM-MN]

People who do BIAB commonly have very thin mashes. It's not unusual for those to go well beyond 2qt/lb.

I just did such a batch BIAB. My ratio was 4 qts/lb and it was fully converted in 20 minutes. I did have to adjust my pH for the mash.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Another consideration is that I have found that a good slow sparge seems to effect my efficiency (i.e. get those sugars out) more than variations in mash thickness. I do a modified BIAB reserving some water for a thru-the-bag sparge. Whatever my mash thickness (usually 1.2 - 1.7), I always try to reserve about 8-10 qts for a 30-40 min sparge. I have found that the times I skimp on the sparge, my efficiency suffers. I also reserve a little water for an infusion mashout before the sparge even though it isn't really necessary. I think it actually functions as a kind of "pre-sparge" and loosens up the mash so the sparge is more effective. Keep in mind that I have no clue if there is any factual basis for any of this. It's just what works for me with my setup.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

I could be wrong, but I think Palmer said that mashes that are too thick has some negative effect on Residual Alkalinity. Obviously thinning out a mash to an extreme would also contribute to tannin extraction. I think you would only have to worry about that in very light beers with low gravities. Kaiser actually wrote up something on that as well.
http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/inde...ity_and_efficiency_in_single_infusion_mashing

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Duplicate

 

[doug293cz]

Another consideration is that I have found that a good slow sparge seems to effect my efficiency (i.e. get those sugars out) more than variations in mash thickness. I do a modified BIAB reserving some water for a thru-the-bag sparge. Whatever my mash thickness (usually 1.2 - 1.7), I always try to reserve about 8-10 qts for a 30-40 min sparge. I have found that the times I skimp on the sparge, my efficiency suffers. I also reserve a little water for an infusion mashout before the sparge even though it isn't really necessary. I think it actually functions as a kind of "pre-sparge" and loosens up the mash so the sparge is more effective. Keep in mind that I have no clue if there is any factual basis for any of this. It's just what works for me with my setup.

What is important in sparging in having enough time for the sparge water and the grain + retained wort to come into equilibrium with respect to sugar concentration. This equilibration requires diffusion, which takes time, but can be greatly accelerated by agitation (that's why you want to stir a batch sparge well.) The slow (vs. fast) pour sparge (a form of fly sparging) allows more contact time between the sparge water and the grains, thus allowing the the resultant run off to have a higher sugar concentration.

Brew on