All Grain & BIAB FGs are high How do I correct?

[66Fox]

I have brewed 2 AG BIAB batches this fall. My first recipe can be found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/going-ag-via-biab-1st-recipe-review-277246/ The 2nd was a porter I brewed trying to make an Edmund Fitz clone. The trend I’m seeing (I know, 2 data points can hardly “trend”) is my FG is “high” 1.020 for the first brew and 1.022 for the second. While that’s not totally crazy, it’s higher than I would think it should be. So, I’ll detail as much as possible in an attempt see what can be done to correct this, or maybe I’ll find I’m worrying about nothing.

The first brew (an APA) was my first AG BIAB and if I were to conduct an AAR and list what went right, well… I put tasty beer in a corny keg—and no small children or animals were injured in the making of said beer. That’s about it.
Ok, maybe there’s more: My mill worked great.
Cooling the beer in my keezer for 2 days really made it clear up.
SWMBO LOVES IT! And since it’s almost gone I must brew more.

Here’s most of what went wrong:
I used a crankandstein mill set at .026” to mill the grains I think the grains looked like pics I’ve seen posted here—OK, so, maybe that’s the 2nd thing that went right.
I overshot my strike water temp at 175*. After adding the grain my temp was 158—too hot. I could stop right here, blame it on the temp, and drive on, but my temps were OK for my second batch. 30 minutes into the mash I was at 154* and I was down to 152* by the end of the hour.
I forgot to heat the water up to a mash out temp of 170.
I had no trouble picking up the bag and draining it, so my pre-boil volume was good. The boil went Ok, and my hops additions went as listed. I have a wort chiller that I used to bring the wort temp down to 68* before transferring to the better bottle. I pitched a 2L starter of 1056 (1 smack pack in the starter) that I made 48 hours earlier, cooled the night before, then I let it come to room temp while brewing. I aerated the wort—after pitching the yeast—for 20 minutes. (Aerating after pitching the yeast is something I picked up while listening the BN podcasts, and John Palmer claims this is his current strategy for aerating his wort) My fermentation temp was 66*, and my part of the basement where I ferment doesn’t vary in temps by more a degree or two over the course of a week. Two days later the SG was 1.022, and the krausen was already all but gone. Eight days later my FG was 1.020 and I put it in my keezer to cool for a couple of days before kegging and carbing.

My porter was my own recipe made with the help of this forum and Brew Pal.
Grain:
11lbs Pale 2-row
6oz of black patent malt
.75lb of crystal 75
.5lb chocolate malt
.25lb of special B (I had it laying around and said why not)

Hops:
Northern Brewer 1oz at 60min
Willamette .75oz at 30min
Willamette .75oz at 15min
My mash temp was via an analog thermometer (my digital finally went) and this time I added the grain when the water was 160* and occasionally and gently stirred the mash as the temp came up to 150-154* which I held for an hour. I did raise the temp to 170 before pulling the bag out and draining it. Boil time was an hour. I was a little light on my Preboil gravity at 1.044 (Brew Pal said 1.046) but my post boil gravity was good (actually a little high as I went for a more aggressive boil) at 1.062 vs. 1.057 for Brew Pal. I pitched a starter of washed 1056 from the previous brew session. Aeration was the same as the previous batch. Fermentation was started at 68*, but I thought that might be too warm so I put it in my crawlspace where it stayed 63*. 6 days later, my SG was 1.024. The krausen had already fallen back down and most the yeast was on the bottom of my better bottle. 9 days after brewing—the SG is still 1.022. I did let it warm up to 68* again for a few days to see if that would help, but no dice. Today I put it in my keezer to chill. I’ll keg it Saturday.

Other info that may be important: Brew kettle was a 20gallon Bayou Classic (borrowed from a friend) but with a SS basket from 5gal cabelas canner I have. The grain bag was homemade via a thread here on HBT, but it maybe too small, since it needed to fit into the smaller 5gal basket. It easily fit the grain for either batch of beer.

It’s since been upgraded to the 15gal Bayou Classic with the strainer basket sized to the 15gal pot and a new grain bag sewn just for the 15gal BK. I’m also bringing a fridge home today that will be my new fermentation area even though I don't think that's my biggest issue.
Milled grains:

Getting ready to weigh the hops:

My setup:

With the grain added:

Any insight is appreciated,

Thanks

 

[wolfman_48442]

Your actual efficiency is higher than your recipe efficiency. Not a serious deal, you just have to figure out your equipment and adjust your recipes accordingly.
The thing that can make it a bit tricky is that as you brew higher gravity beers in BIAB, your efficiency will decrease.
Good notes on everything you do can go a long way in allowing you to predict trends in your equipment and processes, and make any needed adjustments.

 

[944play]

If the beer tastes good, don't worry about it too much, if at all. Maybe calibrate your hydrometer with water and with a sugar solution of known density like this:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/gravity-priming-sugar-113941/#post1290651

Do be aware that ambient temp does not determine beer temp. You'll need to scavenge more heat during the active part of the ferment. Yeast tend to go to sleep when temps go down, possibly leaving the beer less than fully attenuated. Chico yeast (1056) is pretty aggressive though, so your high FGs might point to an instrumentation error.

 

[stux]

Your inner pot is soooo small...

I would consider trying a biab bag which is big enough to line your outer pot and then skipping the inner pot

 

[samc]

I think your focus at this point should be dialing in your temps for mashing. Repeatable strike temp, mash temp, etc. When you get that done and know by a quality thermometer that you are correct then you can start to analyze the next steps. Which would be yeast pitching & aeration/oxygenation, then fermentation temp control. Otherwise IMO you are going to be trying to attack too many things at once based upon a lot of input on HBT.

I think you are probably doing a great job overall, you just are looking to refine the process which doesn't need major surgery.

 

[66Fox]

Your inner pot is soooo small...

I would consider trying a biab bag which is big enough to line your outer pot and then skipping the inner pot

This is the one thing I've already corrected. I have the correct inner basket for my 15gal Bayou Classic pot. It can be seen in the background of the picture showing the ground malt. I also have a bigger grain bag that is as big as the ID of the basket.

Thanks for the comments! I'll keep working on refining my process. I have a new thermometer; this one came with documentation re its calibration, I've used it once in my Sous Vide cooking; I hope it lasts longer than the other ones. Consistent mash temps are the first issue I plan to tackle.