First All Grain Brew

Today I did my first all grain brew, EdWorts Haus Pale Ale. I did it per his recipe except I ended p with 9lbs of 2 row by mistake and had to sub caramel for crystal so it was as follows

9 lbs 2row pale malt
2 lbs Vienna malt
.5 lbs Caramel 10 L

Mash

I preheated my 10g Rubbermaid with .5 gal of 140deg water (I think I should have heated higher?) And then heated 3.5g to 164 added it to the cooler and doughed in. By the time I was able to get the mash stirred up and the lid on I missed my mash temp of 152 and ended at 149 for 60min. I then added 5qt of 175f strike water, restored and let it sit 10min before vourlafing nd collecting first runnings. I sparged with 3.3g of 175f water, stirred and or sit for 10 min th vourlaf and collected second runnings.

I did a 62min boil in a 15g Blichmann with hop additions as follows

1 oz Cascade @ 60mn
0.5 oz Cascade @ 30min
0.25 oz Cascade @ 15mn
0.25 oz Cascade @ 5min

Chilled to 80f in 15min with IC. Carboy looks to be right bout 5g (recipe called for 5.5) and OG sample came in at 1.050 (recipe is 1.051)

When I plugged this all into Brewsmith it said I was at 67% efficiency, though I found te equipment & mash sections confusing and I'm not sure I set to up correctly..

So my questions are this, if I ended up with 5gal rather than the described 5.5 I'm assuming my boiloff rate is higher than EdWorts. How do I correct this? Also what can I to to increase my efficiency?

All and all I really enjoyed my first AG brew, and being outside s much more fun than over the stove!

Congrats! I also brewed my first all grain today and hit 70% efficiency. I have a good friend who brews and seems to average between 67-70% with the same setup. Not too sure how to increase the efficiency myself, but in the all-grain section there is a thread that goes over how to increase the efficiency. I'm personally good with 70% and will just adjust my grains to make up for the difference.

1. Congratulations on your first AG! AG was the best step in brewing I made… though expensive.
2. The crush of your grain is really important; if you can, crush your own; don’t rely on the LHBS.
3. I would use at least 4 gallons @ 160 F to preheat your MLT for 10min.
4. During the saccharification rest, stir two – three more times and maintain at least 152*F during the rest. During dough-in, make sure you do not have any dough balls (all grain is wetted and in suspension).
5. Mash in with 1.25qt of water per lb of grain.
6. I use BeerTools Pro, can’t comment on Brewsmith. BTP will tell me how much I need based on boil off / outside temp… though I set this config up, it’s not always accurate. I use a wooden mash paddle with markings to tell me how much wort I have and use experience to gauge how much I’ll be left with after boil.
7. I use a continuous sparge over an hour+… some call this a hybrid fly sparge. It’s just a continuous sparge.
8. I usually get 85% efficiency.
9. I’m not sure how your mlt manifold is but might be worth a go-look on hbt.