Liquor to grist ratio for higher gravity beers

[Simon_]

I'm trying to calculate a liquor to grist ratio for a Wee Heavy based on this Jamal BYO recipe and certain parts don't make sense to me.

It recommends a 3:1 ratio (1.4L to 0.45Kg / 1.5quarts to 1 lb). The recipe is using 9.25 Kg of grain so that implies mashing with 28 ltrs and then sparging until you've collected 25L of 1.076 total wort.

Seems like you'd end up with about 50ltrs+ of much weaker wort if you use that ratio and then sparge. To make bigger beers what sort of ratio is needed?

[irish_goat]

I haven't got Beersmith here in work but I'm guessing the numbers are right. If you mash in with 28 litres you'll need around 11 litres of sparge water to get it up to 25litres, once you factor in wort that's been lost in the deadspace plus absorbed by the 9 kilos of grain.

[molc]

I'm the same as you, having read a lot about this but not tried yet. Over the summer I'm going to be giving the same sort of thing a shot.

From what I've read, 3:1 ratio, or even 2.5, would be about right alright, making a relatively stiff mash. I'd say just do a single batch sparge with that ratio. Now, I don't know how much sugar you'll actually manage to rinse with 7 liters, but at least you'll keep your gravity up. Also, you're only really aiming to hit around 70% efficiency with Jamil's recipes, so the rinse should be THAT important

Initial water: 28L
Sparge: 7L (+ your deadspace)

Alternatively, sparge with more liquid and boil longer, making sure to start your hop timer once you've hit his stated pre boil gravity for the style.

Yet another option is to make up any difference in gravity with DME. Since you'll already have extracted much of the flavour from the grain, plus enzymes if you don't do a mash out, your DME shouldn't make a massive flavour difference and just up your gravity cleanly.

[Simon_]

Cheers.
I BIAB so that's probably where my issue is. I don't have any deadspace and I give it a good squeeze I probably lose less to absorption.

I think I'll try a bit of a stiffer mash.

[RedWino]

Have you tried plugging those numbers into Biabacus?

With that grain bill (and my individual settings for losses) I'm coming in at 32l total water needed to hit 25l volume into boil.