Why does the efficiency drop from your mash to after your boil?
BIAB isn't necessarily less efficient than a system set up with HERMs. You may lose lauter efficiency from not sparging, but you gain some back by having less grain absorption, and usually less deadspace. There is a wide range of what folks actually get in practice for both methods.
One thing I don't agree with in that article is that "Brewhouse efficiency generally remains constant from batch to batch when brewing on the same system". I find that my brewhouse efficiency is greatly affected by the type of beer I'm brewing, for example IPA's have a lot of trub loss from the hops so my brewhouse efficiency goes down even compared to a different beer with the same gravity. I find it's easier to target post boil volumes and gravities, as that stays very consistent.
Whole hops absorb a lot of wort. Probably more that trub/pellet hops.If you use whole hops in a basket instead of pellets does that make a difference in the amount of trub in your IPAs?
I am just getting back into brewing after a long hiatus so I appreciate all the feedback. I don’t want to do extract and want to start with biab
Do like I did. Start with a recipe that was designed for 70% brewhouse efficiency and make the beer. Check your volumes and OG and see what you got. Do it again, taking good notes each time. Now you know how your system/method compares and you can adjust the base malt to account for the difference in brewhouse efficiency that you achieved. I had to choke down a couple high alcohol batches until I believed that my efficiency was so much higher than the recipe was made for and began adjusting the base malt to account for that.
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