I typically just use a mash ratio of 1.33qts/lb. When I was first getting into brewing, I was told that a water ratio of 40% for the mash and 60% for the sparge was ideal. When you're doing low alcohol batches with 8-10 pounds of grain, I find that these ratios usually work out, using the 1.33qts/lb ratio that is.
I've been doing some higher alcohol beers lately using much more grain, and obviously with that ratio of 1.33, most of the water is going into the mash, and it's more like 60 or 65% of the water is going into the mash, and 40 or 35% is used to sparge.
How will this effect efficiency, if at all? ... should I lower the mash ratio, or what?