First AG BIAB - Would Appreciate some Feedback - Thanks

So yesterday, I am did my first AG, BIAB. Earlier in the week, I sewed up a voile cloth bag. material direct from Joanne Fabrics, even used a "serger". Who knew I could be domesticated. Nonetheless, I used a receipe that was in BYO mag, earlier this year for an Imperial Blonde Ale - 14.625# of grain. everything seemed to go pretty easy, for the most part...I think. Used 8 gallons of water for a 2.18 qt/# ratio. Raised water temp to 160*, mashed in and water hovered around 152*. had to reheat briefly at about 30 min. Tried to stip mach every 15 min to make sure i was getting good water exposure. I also double crushed my grain bill as I have read that helps with efficiency. Raised the the temp for mash out to what I thought was 170*, but it quickly dropped to 166*, left there for 10 min. Removed the grains and put in a 6.5 gallon bucket to squeeze out as much wort as possible. I ended up getting nearly 3/4 of a gallon. Added this back to the kettle for a total volume of ~6.75 gallons. Pre boil gravity was 1.057 (target 1.059). Boiled for an hour, added 2.5# of clover honey (per recipe) last 5 min. Final gravity was 1.081. Here is where I have some questions...per Beersmith, I had 90% efficiency. This does not seem realistic. I ended up with about 6 gallons in to the fermenter, plus I added about 2.5L from my starters. This is a big beer, so I made a 2.5L starter.

More Pics...

You got about 74% efficiency from the mash and bag-squeeze.

57 points (1.057) * 6.75 gallons collected = 384.75 points collected pre-boil.

36 points / lb (average malt potential) * 14.625 lbs = 526.5 points possible

384.75 / 526.5 ~ 74%

I don't BIAB but that looks about right. You generally use pre-boil to judge your efficiency, not sure which number you're looking at in BS

GotPushrods said:

You got about 74% efficiency from the mash and bag-squeeze.

57 points (1.057) * 6.75 gallons collected = 384.75 points collected pre-boil.

36 points / lb (average malt potential) * 14.625 lbs = 526.5 points possible

384.75 / 526.5 ~ 74%

I don't BIAB but that looks about right. You generally use pre-boil to judge your efficiency, not sure which number you're looking at in BS

Click to expand...

Thanks! Thanks feels more realistic. Funny thing, I just went back into BS to see where I got the numbers and when I opened, it now shows 75%, right in line with your numbers.

Jps101 said:

Thanks! Thanks feels more realistic. Funny thing, I just went back into BS to see where I got the numbers and when I opened, it now shows 75%, right in line with your numbers.

Click to expand...

In reality, BS probably did not use 36 points/lb for every malt. Some were likely a bit lower, thus a slightly lower potential and slightly higher efficiency. If you double click on each grain in the recipe you will see a field for potential extract. This should help you understand the numbers.

Sounds spot on to me!