Help with my watery beer :(

[Steve b]

I need help on my water calculations , just tried my first all grain , Waited 4 weeks after keeging , OG and FG was perfect , but it taste like weak watery beer , soo sad Im thinking I mashed with too much water , is there a rule of thumb for grain to water ratio , i also maintained my tun temp perfect for 60 mins, from memory it was a 6.5 kg grain bill and I mashed with 35 l and sparged with 10l . Don't want to make this mistake again. I'm so pi...ed

[Matt Smith]

Hey Steve. What were your OG and FG readings? These will help alot for offering advice. Your water to grain ratio does sound a little high. Common ratio's tend to be somewhere between 2.5L per kg and 3.5L per kg. I usually use around 2.8:1. Having a slightly lower ratio frees up more water for sparging, which usually gives a better efficiency as more sugars are rinsed out with the larger sparge volume. There are also other factors that could have played a part, such as your grain bill, your final gravity etc

[Steve b]

It was a pilsner OG 1047 FG 1015 being my first time tunmaintained 57c aiming for 61c , grain bill 4 kg

[Hutch]

That would be your problem. 57 is a very low mash temperature, barely warm enough for Beta Amylase to work. The normal mash target it 65-67, but you'll still get good results at temperatures slightly outside that range. 'Watery' is generally a problem associated with lower mash temperatures.

Check out the All Grain section of How to Brew for a detailed explanation of mash temperatures.

Alec

[Steve b]

I'm running a rims system , sparge head in tun , could you run me through a step by step process you would have used for the 4 kg grain bill pilsner?

[Matt Smith]

That link Hutch provided is a must read and it walks you through what's happening to your mash at each temperature range, grain-water ratio's and pretty much everything you need to know about mashing. Reading that is your best bet. If your using a single infusion mash then there is no difference in mashing a pilsner from an ale or any style really, apart from varying mash temperatures to manipulate yeast attenuation.

Like Hutch said, your mash temp is a little too far out of the range for full conversion. For a highly fermentable wort, the lowest I would personally go is 64c