BIAB: Low efficiency?

[tonyc318]

Glad I double crushed with the neighbors mill yesterday. Ended up with 74% on a 10 gal BIAB batch. Maxed out my keggle! I'm not sure I will do many more 10 gallon batches. Takes longer. But a good brew day.

 

[bradfordmonk]

I just redid my beer. Today I got 80%+ (about 81.95% by the calculators online) efficiency. So grain crush is a big part of this.

 

[jtswkd]

I use my LHBS's standard crush and just got 72% out of a really big (1.101 SG) RIS. The same recipe people were getting 50-60% on and blaming BIAB, but thats not the case. I've also had great luck with NB's double crush.

I just dough in, stir at the 20 min mark and then let it ride until 75-90 mins are up, no mash out. The I stir really good, pull it out and squeeze what I can then call it good.

That RIS was tough though, I didn't rig up my usual pulley system and just used my arms for the 20lbs of wet grain, that sucked!

I also just use filtered tap water, and I am out in the phoenix area which is not known for great water.

Just hit your temps, mash a little longer and stir!

 

[bradfordmonk]

I think I am going to move to heating up the water and then lining my cooler with the voile and doing the BIAB Mash in the cooler. Or figuring something else out for the winter time.

 

[MikeyLXT]

I will chip in with the "It is all about the crush" and "go to your LHBS" group. MY 1st two BIAB batches were from AHS and I had efficiency in the mid 50s. The crush didn't look very good (i had requested a 'double crush') but seeing as this was my 1st experience I didn't know better either.

For my 2nd batch I got 10 lbs of Maris Otter from my LHBS. They set the mill fine and after the 1st run....holly crush batman it looked 10x better then the orders from AHS. I got 83% efficiency with that batch and actually added some additional hops.

Not that I didn't already loves my LHBS but now I love them even more.

 

[bradfordmonk]

oh yea, i also burn my voile bag to the outside of my pot too, so definetly going to the traditional cooler to mash in.

my plan is, have a cooler with kettle screen and valve installed, line cooler with voile, mash, sparge, done.

 

[mcbaumannerb]

oh yea, i also burn my voile bag to the outside of my pot too, so definetly going to the traditional cooler to mash in.

my plan is, have a cooler with kettle screen and valve installed, line cooler with voile, mash, sparge, done.

This would more typically be called a mash-tun If you go that far just put a bazooka screen or a false bottom in and just don't use the bag anymore.

 

[bradfordmonk]

This would more typically be called a mash-tun If you go that far just put a bazooka screen or a false bottom in and just don't use the bag anymore.

yup, i figured if i kept the voile from the biab method, this would help me still be able to keep my crush a little finer and not have to worry about stuck sparges to have the voile as protector number 1 and the kettle screen as protector number 2.

does that make sense?

 

[newnick]

Got a kit in today from Midwest and the crush looks alot better than the last two kits I've gotten. I asked them to double crush and it looks like they did.

 

[bradfordmonk]

Got a kit in today from Midwest and the crush looks alot better than the last two kits I've gotten. I asked them to double crush and it looks like they did.

good to hear they took some feedback and improved the process