Longer Mash Time = Higher Efficiency?

[rich_lamb]

Dunno.

But from what you're saying about your gravities measured in the final runnings, your extra efficiency is coming from extra water. Same scenario as mine - "undersparging". It's easy to get fluctuations in efficiency in this case.

I reckon the mild is a writeoff from a scientific comparison point-of-view. As long as the beer's good

 

[mika]

There's been some posts in the past covering water to grist ratio's. My understanding is that you want to keep it the same for your brewing, at least that makes sense to me in terms of keeping your pre-boil amounts similar (provided you're not changing from Milds to Barleywines) which makes it easier to judge boil off rates.

I'm pretty sure that I thinner mash (high L/kg rate) generally results in a more fermentable wort. It probably comes down to your mash tun size more than anything. I guess you could alter the grain water ratio say 2L/kg for a stout and 3L/kg for a Pilsner, but it's going to be hard to compare the relative attenuation of the two given the large variations in grain bill. Whether it has an effect on brewhouse efficiency, I don't know.