mash liquid

[DRB]

I know it's prob all over the forum in different subjects,but could you possibly tell me if this is the right ratio of water to grain for mashing.

2.5 Litres of water to 1kg of grain. thanx

[DRB]

Mash underway

[NzDan1]

If a Thin mash is more fermentable what is the advantage of a thick mash?

[Scooby]

If a Thin mash is more fermentable what is the advantage of a thick mash?

A stiff mash encourages the production of dextrins, non fermentable sugars.

There is no advantage as such, you have to get the balance of sugars right to obtain the style of beer you want.

Thin mash = more %age maltose (fermentable) = drier beer.
Stiff mash = more %age dextrins (non-fermentable) = sweeter beer

Of course other factors contribute like temp, mash time, pH etc

[NzDan1]

That may explain why my 1.050-1.060 brews finish below 1.006 lately because ive been using a thin mash and when I started all grain it was rather thick, and/or maybe because ive been dumping my wort on the yeast cake from the previous week (lots of yeast), probably too much, this time it spewed out the airlock within four hours of transfering to fermentor and there was 20cm of space at the top.
There is curremtly 6cm of yeast cake in my fermentor and it was only about 40 hours or so ago that I finished my boil it was 6am on sunday morning when I finished and by 10am it was out of control, the airlock was full of yeast and it was pissing out all over my lid.
I usually do 26 litre batches, this one was only 23 and its gone crazy, im glad I didnt get the 26 litres I was expecting to get or there would be beer all over the spare room and the missus would kick my ass.

[Vossy1]

Hi NZ, How long do you keep using the yeast cake for?

Have you ever had any 'off' flavours imparted from dead yeast cells?

[Jim]

From the reading I've done, the thickness of the mash is a fairly minor factor in the dextrin/maltose ratio. The temperature and pH are far more important factors.

[NzDan1]

Hi NZ, How long do you keep using the yeast cake for?

Have you ever had any 'off' flavours imparted from dead yeast cells?

This is the first time ive used it four times its wyeast 1098 and im not keen to use it any more than that, im aware that yeast may mutate and the fact that there is alot of dead cells lying around, next time I reuse a yeast from a fermentor I think I will remove most of it first.
The only off flavours ive ever had was using Muntons premium gold with extract brews, they were my first brews maybe I had an infection, maybe it was the yeast, maybe it was just extract, still a question im pondering although it dont matter anymore.