Thanks for the detailed reply! My bag is definately to small, I was thinking of cutting a slit in it to see if it would go all the way over my kettle but maybe I'll do the second bag like you suggest instead. i don't know if I have to stir the mash every 15 minutes, you are probably right about the intial doughing in being enough. Some people have said that 90 minutes is to long, I just did what beersmith told me to do.
The stratification went away, it all settled on the bottom and looks normal now. I think somehow some of the break material got in there, hopefully it won't any cause off flavors.
No problemo, I always enjoy learning about other peoples process and photos make everything so much easier to understand.
One other small benefit of using 2 bags instead of 1 large bag is when it comes time to lift the bag, it will weigh half as much. I am a pretty big guy, but holding a hot, wet, sticky bag of heavy grain for more than 30 seconds can be taxing. I much prefer doing a smaller weight twice. That said, there is also some extra work in that there are two bags to squeeze and I need an added vessel to hold the grain from bag #1 while I am squeezing bag #2. The other reason I used two bags is that at my local Lowes the 5 gallon bags come in two packs...so I had this extra bag just sitting around anyways. After a particularly large grain bill I decided to give it a try, and now I do it that way every time. All that said, one thing I wish was easier to do was clean the bags out afterwards. I feel like there will always be little bits of grain stuck to the bags, and they discolor over time. If a custom made bag could be run through the washing machine or dishwasher and come out like-new, I might consider changing things up. But for now I am going by 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'.
As for the 90 minute mash, I personally don't see any problem with it, especially if you are able to hold temps so steadily. I lose more temperature over the same amount of time, and my grain is pretty loose and spread out, so I just always do 60 minutes. Now, if you want to cut time out of your brew day, it might be a place to cut 30 minutes, but from what I read here everyone has different goals for brew day duration. Some people like it to be quick, compact and efficient with a lot of simultaneous activity, while others tend to be very thorough and exacting and want to enjoy the whole process. And of course everything in between. I tend to aim to shorten my brew day, but never at the cost of quality. I am sure the more batches you get through, you will start to figure out what works best for you and your system as far as timing. I tend to take about 6 hours from pulling the gear off the shelf, to putting it back after cleaning. I am not in a hurry ever, but I try to prep the later steps while waiting for mash and boil times to pass.
Makes sense about the material settling out, and in case you are worriedd about the extra break material, I wouldn't if I were you. I typically just toss in the whole kettle and figure the yeast know what to do with it. When racking from my primary, that is when I try and get only the pure liquid and seperate out any trub/break material.
Man...I didn't mean to write a wall of text...but, too late now. Congrats on the smooth brew day and good luck in the future.
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