I know this has been discussed before, but I can't find the reference. 
What would happen if I were to set my sparge water boiling with the bittering hops *during* the mash, then cool it to 170 and use the resulting hopped water to batch sparge with. Seems like this could save on boil time since there would be no reason for an hour long wort boil then.
My questions are:
(1) would this work?
(2) any disadvantages of a short wort boil, and how short can it really get before I negatively affect the beer?
(3) what's a good way to convert bittering hops amounts from full-boil wort to boiling in plain water with sparge volumes?
(4) does boiling hops in plain water even work?
What would happen if I were to set my sparge water boiling with the bittering hops *during* the mash, then cool it to 170 and use the resulting hopped water to batch sparge with. Seems like this could save on boil time since there would be no reason for an hour long wort boil then.
My questions are:
(1) would this work?
(2) any disadvantages of a short wort boil, and how short can it really get before I negatively affect the beer?
(3) what's a good way to convert bittering hops amounts from full-boil wort to boiling in plain water with sparge volumes?
(4) does boiling hops in plain water even work?
