Mashing Thicker

[Kev888]

I 'prefer' 2.5L/kg but my MT doesn't allow that with high gravity recipes. The thickest I regularly do is 1.5L/kg which is a bit of an effort to stir in, but it definitely works and quite well enough that I've never felt the need to split the mash. A bit less efficiency than normal is the only issue I've noticed, and perhaps somewhat more effort to get the PH correct, but its hardly dramatic - though I'm a 90min chap so no idea if it would be different at 60min.

I've not noticed any difference with attenuation - though such things are heavily influenced by the yeast used, so perhaps some strains could differ more; they certainly do with temperature, I don't know about thickness but it seems feasible. Sadly I can't say - my thicker mashes are for higher gravity brews, where I tend to use fairly well attenuating yeast.

Cheers
Kev

[Eric]

My standard mash ratio is 2l/kg. I will increase that to 2.5 when brewing stronger beers to avoid them becoming too heavy, but as Kev wrote, a point comes when mash tun capacity limits that option. To deal with that my mash temperature is reduced, duration increased and exceptionally I'll reduce mash pH. I can't provide proof, but it seems to work.

[Manx Guy]

I've done a couple at 2 l/kg. They worked fine but I didn't enjoy stirring them...

Surprising, alway thought you enjoyed stirring.

I use 2.5l/kg or even 3l/kg as I like to get the mash on quick with as little faffing around as possible.

I do find that the ones mashed in at 3l/kg are drier.

Cheers!

Guy

[alwilson]

I ended up mashing in at about 1.8 litre per kilo, i tried 1.5 initially bu was too much effort to get all the dough balls out, so i added more water to thin it down up to the capacity of the MT, which gives me 1.8L / kg - I didnt notice any difference in efficiency, pH was slightly higher at 5.6 rather than 5.2 - 5.4 I typically get. But within range. So wasn't bothered.

Cheers
Alex