Grandfather - very liquid mash

[Tomp]

Ran my 1st brew with the grandfather last weekend.

Used their online calculator (as it sends the steps etc. to the controller) to sort out the mash liquor (I would have used BeerSmith but this is only on my iPad and won't output a beer.xml file) and it suggested 21 litres of mash liquor for a 6.5Kg with 11 for the sparge. When mixed in, it seemed very runny. Not at all the normal 'porridge' consistency I'm used to.

My normal calculation would have been around 18 litres (with about 3 litres given over to dead space) based on the GW calculations of around 2.3 litres per Kg.

Does anyone else think this seems a lot of water for a mash?

[Fil]

What does the formula in th G/F manual provide?

Thats more liquor than ive had in my G/F for a mash, but i dont belive i have mashed more than 5kg of grain either..
edit - 18l without running up the shed n checking my notes is a familar volume?? so + 3l for circa + 2kg of grain seems reasonable..

Dont forget when you have enclosed the grain within the basket its - give the lid a wee bit off oomff the grain/liquor ratio within the basket will be inline with a stiffer mash in a more conventional tun.


edit #2 a spray of starsan lubes the silicone seal so its slips down rather than pulls off when shoved down..

[chefgage]

Ran my 1st brew with the grandfather last weekend.

Used their online calculator (as it sends the steps etc. to the controller) to sort out the mash liquor (I would have used BeerSmith but this is only on my iPad and won't output a beer.xml file) and it suggested 21 litres of mash liquor for a 6.5Kg with 11 for the sparge. When mixed in, it seemed very runny. Not at all the normal 'porridge' consistency I'm used to.

My normal calculation would have been around 18 litres (with about 3 litres given over to dead space) based on the GW calculations of around 2.3 litres per Kg.

Does anyone else think this seems a lot of water for a mash?

I have just done one myself. 5kg of grain asked for 17 litres mash water and 15 litres sparge water. So your 21 litres for 6.5kg is right. Are you sure you did not accidently add extra on top of the 21 litres. The 17 litres i added certainly gave the porridge consistancy. This was calculated using the online recipe calculator as you did.

[IPA]

With a BM I use 55 litres for 8 kilos of grain. In fact I use 55 litres no matter what size of grain bill. Always get around 85% efficiency.