I've done two brews with BIAB, and ended up with low mash efficiencies for both (~50%). I ran an experiment today with a small amount of milled 2-row to see whether sparging the grains would increase my yield. It did not increase it by much. I was hoping for some help trouble-shooting my process from you fine folks. Here's my set-up:
3 gallon cooler (pre-heated before mashing in)
Voile grain bag (home made)
The temperature of this set-up drops by 1-2F over 60 mins
The mash pH was calculated to be 5.55 using ezcalculator (after adding CaSO4 to the mash/sparge water)
Here are the results:
Step 1: 5L water with 3.33 lbs 2-row (1.5:1); mashed at 150F for 60min
Step 2: drained and sparged with 3.5L at 150F for 10min
Step 3: drained and sparged with 3.5L at 150F for 10min
Mash efficiencies:
Step 1 = 35%
Step 2 = 15%
Step 3 = 10%
Total = 60%
Total volume recovered = 10.5L
So, even after three sparge rinses, I'm only getting 60% yield. I'm squeezing the bag between each rinse. The grains are milled using an electric coffee mill at my LHBS, so they are medium-finely ground. Any suggestions to improve my efficiency? Much appreciated!
*edit: recovered 10.5L, not 13.5L
3 gallon cooler (pre-heated before mashing in)
Voile grain bag (home made)
The temperature of this set-up drops by 1-2F over 60 mins
The mash pH was calculated to be 5.55 using ezcalculator (after adding CaSO4 to the mash/sparge water)
Here are the results:
Step 1: 5L water with 3.33 lbs 2-row (1.5:1); mashed at 150F for 60min
Step 2: drained and sparged with 3.5L at 150F for 10min
Step 3: drained and sparged with 3.5L at 150F for 10min
Mash efficiencies:
Step 1 = 35%
Step 2 = 15%
Step 3 = 10%
Total = 60%
Total volume recovered = 10.5L
So, even after three sparge rinses, I'm only getting 60% yield. I'm squeezing the bag between each rinse. The grains are milled using an electric coffee mill at my LHBS, so they are medium-finely ground. Any suggestions to improve my efficiency? Much appreciated!
*edit: recovered 10.5L, not 13.5L