First All Grain Sparging Questions

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zyx345

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I'm consdering brewing a simple all grain recipe for my first, most likely a Hefeweizen or Belgian Wit with approx 10#s of grain. My experience is approx. 15 brews using Partial Mash and/or Extract + steeping specialty grains.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-BavarianHefeweizen.pdf

I've read Deathbrewer's Easy Stovetop All Grain thread and would be using his method and BIAB.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-stovetop-all-grain-brewing-pics-90132/

The only thing is that I have a 4 gallon and a 5 gallon pot.

-With 10#s of grain, can I mash with 3 gallons of water, then sparge with less than 3 gallons of water (due to headspace) in my 4 gallon pot?

-After the boil, could I then top off with cold water to get to the 5 gallon mark?

My goal is to advance further and make a better tasting beer than my prior partial mash and extract batches.
 
No. You really can't top off like that will all grain. Unlike extract where you have all the sugars condensed in your pot, if you don't collect the sugars from the tun then all you're doing by adding water post boil is lowering your gravity.
 
If you have 2 pots you can split your boil in 1/2. 3.25 in each pot and split your hops for both.
 
If you have 2 pots you can split your boil in 1/2. 3.25 in each pot and split your hops for both.

I had the same question and this is what I'm going to do. The only tricky part will be hoping the boil starts at the same time or else I will need two timers. I have two five gallon coolers and am also considering splitting grains for high gravity beers. So two mash tuns and two pots would make sense. My electric stove would tolerate this better than a giant 8 gallon pot!
 
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