I should have used my buddy's keggles, they were sitting right there, but I'm used to my setup, so I went with it.
For future reference, 18.5 #s of grain is the absolute max when mashing in an 8 gallon pot. It was so full I had to stir air out of it to get it all in the pot. I used 6 gallons of water, just a hair under 1 1/3 qt/liter, so I guess I could have left it a hair thicker. I collected down to 1.010 gravity then boiled in my 9 gallon pot, again, instead of a keggle. That was a mistake - it took for frakkin ever to boil down and get my all wort in there. In the end I got 7 full gallons at 1.088 OG - over 90% brewhouse efficiency the way I figure it. The whole thing took from ~ 10 AM until 9:30 PM. This had better be some good beer.
For future reference, 18.5 #s of grain is the absolute max when mashing in an 8 gallon pot. It was so full I had to stir air out of it to get it all in the pot. I used 6 gallons of water, just a hair under 1 1/3 qt/liter, so I guess I could have left it a hair thicker. I collected down to 1.010 gravity then boiled in my 9 gallon pot, again, instead of a keggle. That was a mistake - it took for frakkin ever to boil down and get my all wort in there. In the end I got 7 full gallons at 1.088 OG - over 90% brewhouse efficiency the way I figure it. The whole thing took from ~ 10 AM until 9:30 PM. This had better be some good beer.