Wife's Red Ale First attempt

[vrodbrad]

Good day all, so yesterday I did my very first biab. Went well but could have been better. Oh the wife has been begging me to make her her red ale which was originally an extract. I converted it over to an all grain using beer smith. She said I had one chance of doing her beer this way and getting it right.
So here is how it went, I put in 3.5 gallons of water in my 5 gallon pot and brought up to my strike temp and added the 10.84lbs of grains and mashed for an hour and forty minutes. (stirred every 15 minutes). After the hour an forty i lifted the grains up. (forgot Mash out step). Went to strain and made a mess on stove top. Poured half gallon water over grains temp of water 168. Beersmith said I should of had pre-boil gravity of 1.109 actual was 1.103. After the boil was complete and cooled down I added the wort to the carboy and added 3 gallons of water to carboy. beersmith my sg should of been 1.057 and I had 1.045. I figured it was going to be low because of certain things. but checked this morning and bubbling away it is. Oh beersmith said I should of had a 79% efficancy I had 68% according to numbers
So here is for me to get better.
1. bigger pot. (wife agree's:rockin
2. bigger strainer
3. Don't forget mash out
4. don't worry so much

 

[BeastofWotan]

My first few BIABs taught me that a good crush and a bag large enough to properly fit your pot (so that your mash isn't super thick) will get you at least 65-70% efficiency, without any sparge or mashout. Do those and you can get a bit more, or be lazy and just add a couple more pounds of base malt to make up for the lower efficiency (my life is constant battle between frugality and laziness).

One thing I'd like to work on is that I always have 2-3 degrees slip in my mash temp over the 75-90 min mash, despite wrapping the pot in two big blankets.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

Depending on mash temp and oven condition I have preheated my oven to 170 and turned off right before I put the pot in. Never lose a degree during the mash process.