I just had another success with Brew in a Bag (BIAB). This past time I got close to 80%!

Just think, you can do all "all grain" and save a whole hour of time and a lot of clean up. Estimate 3.5 hours from set up to clean up. That's great time for an AG batch.

Here's how I do it.

I have a 15 gallon converted keggle with a false bottom (the false bottom keeps the bag off the bottom - you don't want to burn or melt the bag since you're using a burner.).

I bring the water to 121 F. Then I put the bag in the keggle. I pour the crushed grains into the bag. Bring the water up to 151 F (or whatever your mash temp is) and hold it by using the burning from time to time.

There are three keys to high efficiency with BIAB:

1.Mash for 70 minutes and then mash out at 170 F for 20 minutes. That's 90 minutes total.

2. I take off the lid and stir inside the bag every twenty minutes. To do this right, you need someone to hold the bag. Otherwise, you could spill the grain into the wort and that pretty much defeats the purpose. I really stir it up. You lose heat this way so watch your temp gauge and keep the temp constant. Repeat this over and over.

3. When you lift the bag out, be careful. I had one bag begin to rip with a heavy grain bill. For this reason, DON'T SUSPEND THE BAG. Instead, I have a colander that fits perfectly over the mouth of my kettle. I put the colander over the mouth of the kettle and rest the grain sack on top of it so that it can drain while sitting on top of the colander.

While it's draining, go ahead and turn up the burner and start bringing to a boil. This saves time.

Finally, I press on the grain sack against the colander. Some might vote against this, but it pushes out just a bit more wort. Then I throw the grain sack to the side. It's finished.

Don't let people fool you into thinking that this won't work for big grain bills or high OGs. My only worry on the big grain bill is ripping the sack. Just be careful and don't suspend the sack.

If you do suspend the sack, the weight naturally presses and squeezes the grain so don't worry about squeezing it with your hands. If you use the colander, there is no natural squeeze so give it a squeeze yourself.