Water to grain ratio

[Aracer]

Hello, how much water should I use to mashout a lager and how much for sparging?
I have read that 2.5 per kg for mash and 50% more as sparge water.

Thank you

 

[balrog]

You gotta know some things first. You doing 3 vessel brewing (HLT MLT BK?) or BIAB with rinse?

Grain absorbs about 1/2 quart per pound
What is your boil off rate? 1.25-1.5gal/hr is typical
What gets left in the mash tun?
What gets left in the boil kettle?
What do you want for volume into fermenter?

Water to use = FermenterVolumeDesired + BoilKettleLeftBehind + MashTunLeftBehind + BoiledOff + AbsorbedByGrain

Now split into what to mash and then the rest is sparge.

 

[kh54s10]

It totally depends on your equipment. If you can heat the mash you don't need any water for a mash out. If you do a batch sparge you don't need to do a mash out.

You also need to know your boil off rate. I need 7.25 gallons, pre-boil to end up with 5.25 gallons in my fermenter. I need to measure what I get from the mash then I know what I need with the sparge. I do batch sparging so I don't do a mash out.

Temperature of the mash also has an effect on how much water you need for a mash out. A 148 will need more boiling water to reach 170 degrees than would a mash at 154 degrees.

So there is no "answer"

 

[pvpeacock]

For 5 gallon batches, I just use 5 gallons of strike water for the mash. Once I drain the mash tun, I see how much wort I got and add enough sparge water to get my pre-boil amount. So, If I'm shooting for 6.5 gallons pre-boil and I get 3.5 gallons of wort out of the mash (due to grain absorption), I just add 3 gallons of sparge water and drain. Voila!

 

[Day-Day]

I use 1.1 qt of strike water per pound of grain... then fly sparge until I hit my pre-boil volume ... which is just under 7 gallons ( for 5 gallon batch).

There is a reason I use this particular ratio...at the moment I only have a seven gallon kettle... I seem to get a more concentrated wort with the lower grist ratio and longer fly sparge. If I used a higher grist ratio... such as 1.25 or 1.5 qts/lb... then end up with to much wort (for my 7 gallon kettle) and poor efficiency.

This is just my current situation... if I had a 10 gallon or larger kettle it might be different...

I really need to get a larger kettle... haha !!!