Second BIAB went really well

I brewed BM's "Cream of Three Crops Ale". Did the 5 gallon recipe. I think I finally have BeerSmith dialed in for temps and volumes. I started with 7.6gal of water heated to 156 and doughed in. Temp went down to 153. I stirred a little and got it to 151 (was shooting for 150). Mashed for 90 min At the end the temp still read 151. Then I gave it a stir to try a little mash out. Temp dropped to 147. Must have been some stratification. Anyway, mashed out at 170, pulled the bag and let'er hang for a minute or two. Then I squeezed a little and took a hydrometer reading. Was shooting for 1.032 (preboild) and hit 1.034). Then I did my boil. Just a single hop addition up front with some cascade and northern brewer (departure from the original recipe cause its what I had on hand). Had a preboil volume of 7.10 gal for a loss of 0.5gal in 8.0# of grain. That worked out to 0.06gal/lb which is about right. After the boil, I hit my OG pretty good. Was shooting for 1.042 and hit 1.044 with 5.51gal of cooled wort. BeerSmith has me at ~84% efficiency which I thought was good. I was set up for 80%. I was surprised at how accurate BeerSmith can be when set up properly. Cooled her down, pitched some hydrated US-05 and am waiting for bubbles. Cant wait to drink it in a few weeks. This one went much better than my first attempt. Again, I have to say that I love the Barley Crusher. The stock setting (12 o'clock on both knobs) gives a nice fine crush that is great for BIAB.

Good work...sounds like you are on top of things! I was surprised when you first mentioned zero temp drop in 90 minutes. I usually anticipate 3-4 degrees loss when doing BIAB...I typically just mash a little high and let it settle such that I am in the correct temperature range during the mash. At such a high water to grain ratio, a starting temp of 151 might be a little low for BIAB...but then you might get a real nice dry beer that will work great w/ the grain bill and style...good work!

I'm doing my second BIAB tomorrow, this one a dry stout, and I'm going to rely on Beersmith for all directions. When I did my first one a month ago my efficiency was greater than the 72% expected as well. I know a few things to watch out for that I did wrong last time. I'm also feeling comfortable with brewing now, not having to follow the books or online instructions, except that BIAB and all grain was new to me with my last batch. Beersmith also gives such detailed instructions and timings that I pay attention to them.