Swapped sparge and mash water?

[Paradigm]

Hi all,

Recently brewed an American Wheat and I used this to calculate my water needed. We mash in a 10 gallon false bottom pot and the 2.83 gallons listed as mash water barely reached the bottom of the plate, so we used the recommended sparge water (~5 gallons) and use the recommended mash water to sparge.

Our OG was a little low, but the sparging went smoothly. What does the volume of water affect in the mashing process? Wouldn't more water in the mash improve it, if anything?

 

[Yooper]

Hi all,

Recently brewed an American Wheat and I used this to calculate my water needed. We mash in a 10 gallon false bottom pot and the 2.83 gallons listed as mash water barely reached the bottom of the plate, so we used the recommended sparge water (~5 gallons) and use the recommended mash water to sparge.

Our OG was a little low, but the sparging went smoothly. What does the volume of water affect in the mashing process? Wouldn't more water in the mash improve it, if anything?

Generally, 1-2 quarts of mash water per pound of grain gives a good thickness for a mash. I like 1.5 quarts/pound for my system. It sounds like you have a lot of dead space in your pot, under your false bottom so you can add that amount to your mash volume and see where that gets you.

The only reason to have a 1.5 quart/pound volume for me is that it gets me my proper mash pH (but you can get that with a thicker or thinner mash as well), as well as enough sparge volume to maximize my efficiency.

You don't have to sparge- people do no sparge brewing all the time- but it helps with my efficiency when I do so I generally like to have my mash runnings and my sparge runnings be roughly equal to maximize the efficiency I get.

 

[Scubadude918]

From what I understand, the mash thickness effects fermentability. Thick mashes create a more fermentable wort than thin mash. On paper anyways.
From my Experience, I prefer a thicker mash (1-1.25qt/lb) I've gotten better efficiencies that way. I think it's because it leaves more volume for rinsing the grains.


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