What am I screwing up in BIAB?

The first time I did BIAB, I bought a kit from this company. It included everything I needed, including the bottle caps. I followed these instructions and have always gotten >70% efficiency.

http://www.homebrewing.org/assets/images/BIAB Recipes/BIAB IPA Recipe BB.pdf


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soccerdad said:
In my opinion - a dunk sparge in place of a mash out will help. Reduce your initial mash by 1G and set that aside in a bucket. When you pull the bag, drop it in that 1G for a final rinse. Just do one drain and squeeze. Rinse, stir, drain, squeeze if you must.

I assume that you use a calculator to determine how much water you need as you start the boil? Yes?

Ps .. don't believe those who say that efficiency suffers with BIAB. It's a myth. But keep it a secret. We want them to think that they are on to something.
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I do. I use Beer N BBQ by Larry's excel spread sheet as well as Brewers Friend Calculation. I packaged 5.1 gallons after my primary today which is pretty much my target. I filled up with 9 gallons to start. If I can't get my efficiency up ( I know as long as the beer tastes and smells good, then nothing else matters, but I"m a numbers guy) then I'm just going to build a tun and start all grain all grain lol
 
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Mark D Pirate said:
You seem to be losing a lot of wort between strike and packaging.
Are you whirlpooling and using a kettle fining ? A little cold brew into fermentor is ok
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That's my thoughts exactly!!! I don't know how to whirl pool with my kettle. I do use a whirl flock tablet or Irish moss.
 
Whirlpool if is a little tough (for me anyway) when I immersion chill. Hot wort seems to whirlpool much better. That said, whirlpooling wont reduce your amount of trub. It just helps to leave it behind.
 
you have to have a pump to really whirlpool correct and a little engineering, remember to always go counter clockwise if not your fighting the spinning of the earth and trust me thats no joke
 
9 gallons seems like a lot of water (to me). I ry to get 5.25 to 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. I lose maybe a quarter gallon to hot break/cold break left in the kettle. I lose another quarter gallon to grain absorption. I boil off maybe a gallon. 5.5 + .25 + .25 + 1 = 7

If I diluted with another gallon, my efficiency would blow. I don't make super strong beers .. usually 4.5 to 5.5% .. but I don't think I've ever used even 8 gallons of water. Usually more like 7 to 7.5 gallons.
 
With my short experience i can say that im getting relatively high Efficiency using a very simple BIAB Setup.
Calculate how much volume you will Need in the pre-boil. IF you can, mash it with 50-60% of this volume.
Correct the mash pH (it realy improves!) and after mashing is finished, wash twice with ca. 75-80°C water (squeezed) the grains in a separate bucket (kettle) and collect the sparge to reach your pre boil volume. Extraction always works better when washing the grains with several but low volumes of hot water.
I´m getting ca 80% with a relatively thin mash and 2x sparges.
Regarding boiling off, im always getting 1.25 L per hour off.
hope it can help
 
Gunny1775 said:
I put 8 gallons in and ended with 4.5 gallons so I upped it to 9 gallons...ended in 5.5 gallons.
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How are you losing that much wort to grain absorption? Loss should somewhere between .25 and .5 qt per lb. How big is your grain bill? I use a combo system with bag in a recirc tun and I pull and squeeze after sparge so I can eke out another couple quarts of good wort. For a typical mash on a pretty big grain bill, I'll lose as much as a gallon, but no more than that. My efficiency tends to be in the mid-high 70s.

PS...I just realized that you're almost certainly talking about post-boil volume. What's your pre-boil volume? If I start with 31 quarts for a 10 lb mash, I'll put as much as 28 quarts in the boil pot and boil down to 5.5 gallons into the fermenter over 1.5 hours. You may be able to control other losses and get better system efficiency.
 
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