Two questions regarding mini mash

1. This is kinda silly, but for those who use the blanket around the pot method. Where do you do this? I can't imagine putting a blanket anywhere near my stove where a burner had just been on for a half hour, and I'm not sure about setting a pot with 150 deg water for an hour on my countertop... I'm just curious what others do

2. I do not have another kettle, but I'd like to dunk sparge. I'm thinking of doing this:

1. heat water to 162 in my kettle
2. Drop in grain bag, water to 150 deg.
3. Mash for an hour
4. Lift up grain bag and drain for a few minutes
5. Pour the 150 deg wort into my plastic fermenting bucket and set the bag in a colander over the bucket to finish draining while I heat sparge water to 165 ish in my kettle.
6. When water is at temp, dunk the bag in the kettle water for a bit, lift out and place on colander in the kettle.
7. Combine water vols and boil.

Thoughts?

Can't speak to the blanket question, but I do the same thing for my partial mashes or stove-top all grain. YMMV but I've found I need to heat my sparge water to almost 190F in order to sparge at 165F because the grain bag cools as the sparge is heating.

If your mini mash pot is not too big, once you dough in put it covered in the oven pre-heated to the lowest setting, then turn the oven off....it will hold the temp pretty well.

I wrap in towels on the stove, over the burner, right after flame out. The flash point for cotton is not as low as people think. I wouldn't use the "nice" towels for this, and don't turn the burner back on while the pot is wrapped in towels or you definitely WILL have a problem. The first time you do this, just stay and watch it for a few minutes. Its only getting cooler from there. Also, stack a towel or two on TOP of the mash lid to further keep the heat in (heat rises).

A subtle suggestion on step 2 is put the grain bag into the pot first and then pour the grain into it while mixing. This can be a bit challenging on the coordination, but I find that I get less dough ball problems this way.

Use whatever other pots you have to heat sparge water up at the same time you are heating the water for your mash. Let them go way over the target temp, to like, 185 or so. Even though you are letting them sit during the mash, they will still be very hot (>145) when the mash is done. This will dramatically reduce the time you have to wait for them to get up to the proper sparging temp after the mash is done. By this method, I usually have my sparge water ready to go within 5 minutes or less of the end of my mash.

If there is sufficient space between the burners on your stove, you can heat the sparge water in another pot while the kettle is wrapped in the towels. I do this every time and after 20+ brews, still no fires.