BIAB grain amount

Do you know what your efficiency actually was? You could plug that into your software and adjust the malts accordingly....then get suggestions on how to boost it.

 

On a home brew scale I'd just bump up the grain on your next batch. Not gonna cost much.
See what happens.
If that doesn't improve it then there's so many things to look into.
I tried dunk sparging ... adjuncts (to create more space in the bag between malt grains) ... PH'd my water ... longer mash times ... higher water to grain ratio ... higher mash temp ... double crushed grains ... I love to experiment.
In the end, I just came to the conclusion that I need to add a little more grain to my bag.
I've been able to stay more consistent that way.

 

BrewCipher < < clickable link.

 

My big efficiency thing has been crush. I just got a grain mill so will start playing around, but if I got grain from some places online, I would get really low efficiencies, but my LHBS seems to have been set perfect for my system and I get 80% with theirs.

Otherwise, get Brewcipher, unless you want to dish out moneys for different software, to see where you actually should be.

Also for my BIAB-ish method, I use about 1 gallon less water to mash with and they pour the last boiling one gallon of water over the grains in a separate pot/bucket and stir the crap our of it for a few minutes. Then pour the liquid into my kettle. Plus some squeezing...

 

Yep. I’ve always B-ed in a B and have never had efficiency issues. I don’t understand why people say you should expect issues with efficiency, especially considering that BinB doesn’t necessarily even mean no sparge. I’d be willing to bet you’d see the same efficiency issues even with a traditional setup, so the cause is probably a bit more fundamental.

Like @Granitebeard said, crush really fine since you don’t need to worry about a stuck sparge, squeeze the bag, and maybe give the grains a rinse. I don’t think I’ve ever had efficiency below 70%, and it’s usually around 80% for average beers. After that, I’d consider your mash temperature, length, DP, and pH.

 

I BIAB and usually ask my LHBS to double mill my grains if I remember, I also squeeze the bag. I use a water calculator like this one. Make sure your break up any dough balls, pH is right, and temperature is where it needs to be and you should be fine. You could always add a little more to your grain bill though.

 

If your grain bill was high in flaked adjuncts like oats and wheat your grain bag can get pretty gummed up, and you will get less wort out of it.. all you can really do is add more grain based on your previous results, and squeeze the ever living shit out of it.

 

Thinking of the last person to be a jerk to you is a guaranteed way to get an extra 4-6 points out of this step.

 

Add about 12% more malts/grains.

 

I agreed. I takes time to know exactly, im trying to find out mine because i keep switching from 2, 3 to 5 gal batches BIAB and maybe my eff is increasing as i do more batches, i suppose it will stall at some point and i will now exactly what it is.

 

But yea you need all the info you can get, water volume preboil and post, gravity reading preboil and post. Is the only way to know how your system works and make the adjustments. Im doing that myself right now, but to know exactly you have to brew and brew.

 

I second the pour over sparge method. I also switch from a tall narrow kettle to a wide 10 gal. Seems to allow more interaction of the mash water with the grain. I’ve copied several all grain recipes and did them with BIAB and they worked fine.

 

Low efficiency was a big reason I moved from BIAB back to partial mashes

FWIW