Water To Grist Ratios For The Mash.

[Lindsay Dive]

After reading the thread on 'Water to Grain or Grain to Water' I was more than interested to see the varying temperatures of brewers strike water.
Most of the folks here seem to be getting away with a strike temperature much lower that what I use.
My strike temp is around 75 - 76 degrees and I do NOT preheat the mash tun.
My Water to Grain ratio is around the 2.55 - 2.60 litres mark and most times hit the mash temperature of 66 degrees right on the button.
My grain is stored in a pretty cool area of the house though!
What are your thoughts?

Regards,
Lindsay

 

[AndrewQLD]

Lindsay, my strike temps the most consistant part of my brewday. 75c for 2.5l/kilo will settle my mash at 66c or 73.5c for 3l/kilo will settle my mash at 66c. And I don't preheat my mash tun either, dry grain temp of 23c. And I always seem to hit my mash-in temp on the nose every time.
Just wish the same could be said for my efficiency

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Gough]

Mmmm... I generally use the same l to g ratio, but I tend to vary my mash temp depending on the beer I'm brewing. I do give my tun a pretty basic pre-heat before adding my grain. If I'm after a mash temp of 66 I need 73-4 degree water at that ratio. I brew outside and find that extremes of temp do have a slight impact either side of that, but it is usually only a degree or two... So similar, but different I guess :blink:

Shawn.

 

[warrenlw63]

I use the same strike temps as Shawn.

LG ratio is 3:1. :beer:

Warren -

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

I have a Keep Cold cooler for a mash tun. Never preheat it.
Use 3l/kg and strike water temperature of 73C to get 66C in the mash.

C&B
TDA

 

[Lindsay Dive]

Very interesting that you guys seem to be going to 3 litres per kilo way.
Andrew's strike temps for the 2.5 L/Kg are very nearly the same as mine.
I'll go and check the temp of the grain.

 

[Jye]

72C for a 65C mash @ 2.5 L/Kg... but I still get variations in mash efficiency

 

[AndrewQLD]

Lindsay, I have noticed that a lot of brewers are pedantic about getting the thermal mass of their tun right when calculating strike temps (as they should) but seem to forget the importance of grain temp, this affects the final mash temp as well and can make the difference from a spot on mash temp to one you have to adjust by several degrees.

cheers
Andrew

 

[Kai]

I have been using a ratio of 3L/kg but I am thinking of cutting it back a little. At the moment I don't really have the thermal mass of my tun worked out nor do I check my grain temperature. I've just been working it out roughly with reasonable success so far.

 

[bindi]

I have a Keep Cold cooler for a mash tun. Never preheat it.
Use 3l/kg and strike water temperature of 73C to get 66C in the mash.

C&B
TDA

[post="110580"][/post]​

Same as above with the Keep Cold, but now I have a 50L ss tun covered in insulation and are yet to use it, so now I am not sure :huh: anyone help here? 6kg of grain at about 23c
Thanks

 

[Aaron]

My setup is pretty much the same as what TDA has. I don't concentrate too much on the thermal mass or on grain temp. As you can imagine I often miss my strike temp. I allways aim 2.5l/kg. This gives me some room to adjust the temperature with some boiling water and some cool water.

I normally only ever miss by a couple of degrees. So I just live with it.

 

[AndrewQLD]

I have a Keep Cold cooler for a mash tun. Never preheat it.
Use 3l/kg and strike water temperature of 73C to get 66C in the mash.

C&B
TDA

[post="110580"][/post]​

Same as above with the Keep Cold, but now I have a 50L ss tun covered in insulation and are yet to use it, so now I am not sure :huh: anyone help here? 6kg of grain at about 23c
Thanks

[post="110592"][/post]​

Bindi,
If your using a 50 lt stainless steel mash tun (like me) it will have a thermal mass of 0.120 and I assume if it's like mine it will weigh around 13 kilo, so you should be able to mash in with your strike temp at 73.5c to get your mash to 66c if your grains were at 23c.

Thats
what I do

cheers
Andrew

 

[Ross]

I give my mash tun a quick flush of hot tap water as it's all S/S - Strike temp for 2.5L/Kg seems to be always 9c above mash temp...

cheers Ross...

 

[vlbaby]

I use a 50L s/s insulated mash tun, and i find that i lose 9 degC just transfering the water from hlt to mash tun. That works out to be a thermal mass ( as calculated by pro mash ) to 0.423. Quite a bit different to andrewqld.
If i start with a preheated mash tun full of water at around 72 degc , I usually hit 66degC spot on.
So my normal routine is preheat hlt to 81 deg, transfer into mash tun which should drop to 72 degC, then add 3kg/L grain to hit 66degC.

vl.

 

[johnno]

I just do whatever Beersmith tells me.

Seems to work ok.

johnno

 

[razz]

3 l/kg for mine, I also preheat the grain to approx 30-40 degrees. I sit the grain bag on the lid of the hlt the night before and set the stat on the hlt, works very well. Strike temp is always within one degree.

Razz

 

[Lindsay Dive]

Just checked....grain temp. 24 degrees.

 

[sosman]

I let the software calculate this for me. I don't bother preheating anything.

 

[cubbie]

I use a ratio of 3:1 and usally heat my water to about 73c depending on the temp of the grain. Always pre-heat the mash tun with a kettle full of boiling water.

At the end of the day Promash is my guide.

This what i did with my partials and what i did with my first AG (which was on the weekend just gone). Didn't get one congrates when I posted my first AG success in another thread

 

[Stuster]

Congratulations on your first AG then cubbie. :beer: :chug: :super:

Must have missed the other mention of this momentous occasion. How did it go?