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Hey all, been searching the site but couldn't find this info. I have been looking for the proper grain pounts to gallons of water ratio for the mash. Any help is appreciated if you could forward where this info is or to a calculator or what not. Thanks!

Hey jfowler,

Grain to water ratios are kinda hidden in recipes when they not explicitly written. You just gotta do the math with the variables.

The short answer is to start with 2lbs of grain to one gallon of water. As a starting point, 2lb/gal allows for leeway either direction depending on intended result, adjustments due to grain type/quality or even mashing equipment.

The long answer can be found here , near the bottom under water to grist ratio. Just note that while mashing grains for beer is very close to distillers mashes, there are some differences.

The Twisted Brick link contains all the info you need, it's a well done article. I usually go from 3 to 3.5 liters of water per kg of malt. Some things to consider are the mixing method (manual or mechanical) and the type of cereals used, for example with cereals that are typically "sticky" I would use a ratio of 3.5 (liters / kg) or higher. For the calculations, if you just want to calculate the quantity of water obviously just do a multiplication, if you want to create a complete recipe you rely on a software or webapp or .... manually.

The above can be shown in an Excel spread sheet that I made up for a beer brewing vessel that I am busy with.

Distilling mashing is not the same as beer mashing as its process is simpler but the same initial figures hold true

Great tool Richard. I like that spreadsheet. I’m going to try to make one too.

Thanks.
ss