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How do you know how much water to the amount of grains and how much grains?

I want to make 5-6 gallons of beer how much grains and water do I need for the mash and sparge?

Hey steve, Saw no one replied.

I used to frequent this forum (like multiple times a day, and then I dropped off the face of the brewing earth) came back today and thought I would check out the forums.

How much grain/water you use for a 5-6 gallon batch is well like asking "how fast should you drive a car" there are different answers for different scenarios and then under each scenario people will give you different answers.

There is a ratio (1.25qts/lb) which gives pretty much everyone descent results (however it can be tweaked based off of your brew house and brewhouse efficiency* - I'll talk about this later)

All- grain brewing is not difficult - but it is a science Its not "take some grains, add some water, drain and boil" - but at the same time thats all your really doing.

I'm assuming you do a full boil. If you can not, then you will either have to do a partial mash or not brew a full 5 gallon batch.

Brewhouse efficiency is important - it tells you how much grain and how much water is needed. What that means the more efficient your mash is, the less grain you will need, the less grain, the less water. Also there are variables:

Brewery A: wants to make 5 gallons of a 10% beer
Brewery B: wants to make 5 gallons of a 2% beer

if Brewery A and B have the same mash efficiency then obviously A will need more grains
Lets say Brewery A has a great efficiency (say around 99% - which is REALLY good) and Brewery B has a horrible efficiency (say 5% - which a monkey could do better) the amount of grains will be alot closer than if they both have the same efficiency.

If your get all the sugars out of the grains - your efficient, if you get nothing but color then your not. If you get all the grains out you don't need nearly as much grain as you would if you just get colored water.

What I would do is find an all grain recipe (no step mashing for the first time) and use the amount of grains it says to use. Mash it with 1.25qt/# and then use an online calculator or brew software to figure out your efficiency - then when you start making your own concoctions, you can take into account how good or bad your mashing techniques are and thus if its efficient you can use far less grain.

I hope this helps.