Mash/Sparging & Water Levels

Is there a way to Mash/sparge and acheive 70-90% efficiency and not add too much water for the boil?

For instance - when I started out in brewing I was able to boil appx 3-4 gallons of water and bring the level to 5.5 gals of Beer by adding to the primary. This achieved two things for me.

First - I was able to brew inside without issue.
Second- I was able to add 1.5 - 2 gals of cold water which brought the temp down to pitching quickly.

I know about off (hotside?) flavors but I have not experience any as of today and I brewed 12 batches thus far.

So my question for AGrs is can you do the same in AG brewing? Can you extract enough sugars without using a ton of water during the Mash and Sparge?

Just thought I'd ask (might be a stupid question- be nice I'm a noob to AG ).

Thanks

- WW

I think this would be very difficult. Adding a couple pounds of 2-row and accepting low efficiency may be your only choice. I've achieved my highest efficiency by batch sparging with boiling water. You have to use a pH stabilizer to avoid tannins. I also stir the grain with each water addition for 10 minutes or so to maximize the sugars. First & second runnings would be about 4 gallons. Typically, the third runnings will be 2 more gallons @ around 1.015. That's only 30 points lost (~0.006 OG)

You could revive the traditional heavy & small beers from different runnings.

I don't know of any good way to do it. If cooling it is the main issue, then I'd really considering investing in or building a chiller...it's one piece I consider pretty much essential for AG brewing unless you have a snowbank handy.