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So I already have my ingredients and the grains are milled - ready for a brew day on Tuesday. The recipe is an extract recipe that I've made several times, converted for AG. I just looked at the brew sheet from beersmith and there in big bold letters is a warning that my mash tun (5 gal) is too small for the grain and water. Here's a clip of the brew sheet...

-- Prepare Ingredients for Mash
Amount Item Type
8.00 lb Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM) Grain
2.00 lb Caramel Malt - 20L (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain
1.25 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain
0.40 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain

-- WARNING: Estimated mash size: 7.90 gal greater than mash tun volume of 5.00 gal
2 min Mash Ingredients
Protein Rest: Add 10.49 qt of water at 133.9 F
30 min - Hold mash at 122.0 F for 30 min
2 min Saccrification: Add 9.32 qt of water at 198.8 F
30 min - Hold mash at 154.0 F for 30 min
2 min Mash Out: Add 8.16 qt of water at 206.4 F
10 min - Hold mash at 168.0 F for 10 min
-- Sparge with 0.00 gal of 168.0 F water.
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 4.08 gal
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.073 SG with all grains/extracts added

Notice this is for 4.08 G of wort - I can only boil that amount in my 5-Gal pot. So this will be a partial boil - not sure if that's significant.

Anyway, I have a couple questions regarding the warning -

1.) This does not seem like a ton of grain to me - Under 12 pounds seems like it should fit. I brewed a wheat beer a few weeks ago in the same mash tun and that had 11 pounds of grain and I had plenty of room to spare. Is BeerSmith wrong about the volumes, somehow?

2.) After converting, I ended up with quite a bit of crystal. If space really is an issue, should I steep those 2.4# separately from the mash (I could steep the crystal for 15-20 minutes and use that tea in my mash water, for example)?

3.) Again, since this has so much crystal, I wonder if I should change the way I mash these - maybe just a single infusion with a batch sparge or something?

4.) Time for a turkey fryer soon - I need a bigger kettle. And a bigger mash tun. And more fermenters. And a lagering fridge. And a trellis for a hop yard. And...

Edit: Just looked at my other brewsheets - I haven't used this mash technique before (double infusion) - that's the problem. That puts a ton of water in there, compared to the single infusion profiles. I think this is my answer...

bruin_ale

Recipes 

The three water additions alone are more than the size of your mash tun. You have ~28qt or 7G if you add it all up.

You don't need the protein rest with that grain bill, and if you're running out of room in your tun you don't absolutely need to mash out either.

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NorCal Brewers

shivalotus

Recipes 

I have a five gallon mash tun and just did a dunkelweizen. With all the rest steps I couldn't do it all through infusions so I ended up doing a decoction. Not sure if this would be style appropriate for your recipe but it is an option for raising to the next temperature rest.