The Importance of Mash Thickness

TroubleShooting

Harry Mittermaier — Baden bei Wien, Austria asks,

Thanks for your recent BYO+ video on mash thickness. According to some German brewing literature the question of mash thickness is treated differently for pale and dark beers, where a thicker mash and more sparge water are recommended for dark beers and vice versa. The underlying idea is that a thorough sparge with more water aids to extract more body and “graininess” from the grist. Is that more of a German myth?