. I use a 44L mashtun, always pre-heat it with hot tap water until the mash water is nearly ready. I never mash over 2.1L/kg grain (although my batch last weekend I used 2.3L to see the diff, none yet ). I usually add my mash water at 6C above the temp I am aiming for, and, like Gough, I vary my mash temp according to the beer I am making. I think that making a thinner mash leads to a more attenuative beer, wheras a thick mash (like mine) leads to a fuller bodied beer (I think :huh: ), and definitely higher FG's. Going back through my notes, there arent too many beers in the last 6 months that have finished below 1014. I am quite happy with my ratio's, I dont have any brew software, so I do all my calcs by hand, as per John Palmer's numbers, and they work out pretty well. Maybe I should try a 3:1 mash one day, but on the same hand, I would also recommend you try a 2.1:1 mash, on your most commonly brewed beer, just to see the difference. Should be interesting to experiment with....
. Good luck with the dunkelweizen, I was thinking about doing a single decoction myself when the weather gets a bit cooler, just to see how it goes, and how to do it. How many decoctions are you doing? Keep us up to date with how it goes, be interesting to see if it makes a big difference.
