cwi

Recipes 

I think you may have confused him with the sparge/2 formula you supplied. That would be for batch sparging twice, which I don't think is what is in his head. He seems to be envisioning a single batch sparge. Whether he is using, or should use, a single or double batch sparging should be clarified. Overall, it is probably best not to introduce new terminology like "mash out" which just adds to the confusion.

As long as he sticks to basic pale ale recipes. For small grain bill, low grav beers, he will need to read up.

JuanMoore

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No. It can be beneficial to collect less wort and then add water for low gravity session beers where you'd need to worry about extracting tannins, but it's not at all common, especially when batch sparging.

His formula is for a double batch sparge, so what he's saying is to use 1.5 gal for the first sparge round, and another 1.5 gal for the second. Or if you're planning on doing a single batch sparge just use 3 gal one time, or for a triple batch sparge use three 1 gal additions, etc, etc.

I had the same interpretation of the OP's confusion as cwi. To tell the truth, your post seems more like trolling to me than his does.

Pappers_

Recipes 

It's not complicated at all. Mash, drain, sparge until you hit your pre-boil volume. This method works for 90% of the beers I may want to brew.

Check out Denny's batch sparge tutorial http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

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shadows69

Recipes 

I don't know if this is right or wrong but it works for me everytime.
3.5 gals at 149-155 60 to 90mins depending on what I am making.
Drain
4 gals at 168-171 for 10mins.
Drain
Then start boil for 60mins.
Simple and it works everytime for 5gals. May not work for others but I hit my numbers everytime. Oh and use a grain crush of .32( this is important).
Just my 2 cents.

HomebrewPete

Recipes 

Hey guys, sorry I haven't read the thread in a couple days, but thanks for all the help. Things are starting to make more sense in my head but I don't think it will click until I actually try to put all this info into practice and actually attempt an all grain brew. I think that I was confusing myself a bit using the 2 qts/pound of grain ratio for the mash because the volume of sparge water that people have been suggesting seemed really high (in my mind.)

Now the next step is buying all the equipment necessary to brew all grain.