wetchicken6
Active Member
I am currently brewing a 10 gallon batch. The recipe called for 7 gallons of mash water I accidentally added 10.5 is this a problem
too much mash water
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SwampassJ
Well-Known Member
You will just have to compensate for less sparge water in two additions or just one sparge additions. I can't say from experience if thinner mash vs. thicker mash does but I'm sure someone with a side by side can say. I know in the english yeast thread they are playing with different mash thickness to bring out different flavors in the english malts.
mlg5039
Well-Known Member
It will be a problem if you were adding the water to the grains rather than grains to water, and way overshot your strike temp.
SwampassJ
Well-Known Member
Never thought of that. What temp are you sitting at after mixing it all in? Might need to add more water and do a no sparge if you can get to it before too much conversion is done.
Efficiency starts to suffer over roughly 3 qts per pound of mash water according to experiments performed by Kai. However, it's a very minimal difference as long as you don't thin it out much more than that.
Worst case scenario, you end up with good tasting beer. No worries.
Worst case scenario, you end up with good tasting beer. No worries.
The only other thing I can think of affecting this brew is if your brewing water has an appreciable amount of alkalinity. In that case, adding a lot more water to the mash will have the effect of diluting the acidity from the malt and adding more alkalinity from the water. The net effect is that the mash pH might have gone up. That might affect the fermentability and flavor perceptions of the beer. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Try not to do it the next time!
OP
OP
wetchicken6
Active Member
I was pretty close on my SG(slightly higher) and my wort is actively fermenting, thanks for all the input
headfullahops
Well-Known Member
German breweries historically mash on the thin side like that, too. They do just fine. More water is better than too little (obviously to a certain point - someone mentioned 3qt/lb) as far as conversion is concerned.
