Ratio for a blonde ale

[fraser9569]

Hi Guys,

I'm a reasonably new homebrewer and I've recently started moving away from kits and started copying other people recipes and having a go at them. I found a blonde ale recipe which I liked the look of and I've decided I've going to give it a go with a few small tweaks of my own. I posted the recipe on another thread here at the request of another member while I was asking about increasing the concentration of my wort (also please feel free to have a look at that too as all input is very welcome), it's since been suggested to me by another member that they mash with around 3lb per gallon and it's got me worrying that the ratio of grain to water in the recipe I posted is very light on the grain, about 1.25lb per gallon.

It was copied from another bloggers post and I've converted it from imperial to metric. I have checked it over several times - it's correct. It had really good reviews and apparently his version won an award.

Does anyone have any experience in blonde ales who can tell me if this ratio seems off.

Thanks,
Fraser

 

[cswis86]

Assuming the recipe is for a 5 gallon batch and the amount of grain is 10lbs that would work out to be 8 gallons of water for the mash... which is a lot. Could they have meant 1.25qts/lb? and not 1.25lb/gal? I guess they could be doing a full volume mash if this is a BIAB recipe. What ratio have you used in the past? I don't think that the water/grain ratio is all that important it's just a matter of whether you can fit that volume of water in your mash tun.

 

[fraser9569]

Assuming the recipe is for a 5 gallon batch and the amount of grain is 10lbs that would work out to be 8 gallons of water for the mash... which is a lot. Could they have meant 1.25qts/lb? and not 1.25lb/gal? I guess they could be doing a full volume mash if this is a BIAB recipe. What ratio have you used in the past? I don't think that the water/grain ratio is all that important it's just a matter of whether you can fit that volume of water in your mash tun.

Hi and thanks for the reply, it is a full volume mash there’s no sparging. It is definitely 1.25lb per gallon (5lb and 4 gallon, I’ve reduced the mash volume to fit it in my kettle which is only holds around 5 gallon).
My past recipes have normally contained a malt extract so this is my first all grain brew.

 

[cswis86]

Great, since it's full volume and no sparge then everything you're doing is perfect. Good luck on your first all grain brew!

 

[fraser9569]

Great, since it's full volume and no sparge then everything you're doing is perfect. Good luck on your first all grain brew!

Thanks for the input, really appreciate it!