Welcome to the forum BP1
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Unfortunately in all-grain, it is really easy to come across misinformation. You've come across a big bit of misinformation that is by no means uncommon, the myth that BIAB is inefficient. The opposite is actually the truth. BIAB is a highly efficient method of all-grain brewing. It is more efficient than traditional batch-sparge brewing and from what I have seen now over many years, it is probably as efficient as fly-sparging.
The inefficiency myth initially originated from a failure to realise that BIAB (full-volume brewing) is totally different from no-sparge brewing. Many brewers, including quite a few that write professionally, actually don't realise that no-sparge brewing is a form of brewing where only about half the water required for the brew actually touches the grain. In other words, there is no active or passive sparging. In BIAB, like traditional brewing, all the water touches the grain and in BIAB, it touches it for a relatively long time. There are many other reasons why this myth is perpetuated and they are always due to poor education and/or poor terminology. (These podcasts,
here and
here, deal with this issue in more detail.)
Suffice to say that you have no need to worry about any sort of inefficiency with BIAB.
...
Josh mentioned above, Clear Brewing Terminology. One of the podcasts above also deals with this. Understanding where terminology currently used on forums, magazine articles and even in books, falls down will prevent you spending the rest of your brewing career running around in circles and scratching your head
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Josh also mentioned using the BIABacus rather than BeerSmith. At a first glance, the BIABacus will look 'too hard' but it is actually faster to learn, far simpler, far more powerful and far safer than anything else out there. In fact, there is nothing else out there like it. If you don't have time to check it out before your brew day, feel free to post your .bsm file up here and we can check it over for you.
All the best on your maiden voyage,
PP
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