Should I do a No Sparge because of my MLT size?

I'm mentally planning my next brew session, a Bee Cave Brewery Haus Pale Ale AG.

I have made a MLT out of my cooler and I think it's 48 or so quarts. I will be following the directions from this page, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/bee-cave-brewery-haus-pale-ale-31793/ , and it says to use 3.25 gallons of water.

This amount of water will leave me with a LOT of empty head space, which I keep reading about being a main culprit in heat loss. Should I just use the full 7 gallons of suggested sparge water as a way to retain heat?

Or maybe use 4-5 gallons and sparge w/ 2? Or am I reading the directions completely wrong..?

don't put in the full 7 gallons. when mashing most people maintain a ratio of quarts/lb of grain of between say 1 and 2 qts/lb.
if you put the cover on the cooler you'll be ok, though you will need to have the mash water hotter than the 152 degrees to get that mash temperature, and the amount above 152 you need the mash water will depend on your system, check out some online calcs to get the specific temp of the strike water.

RDWHAHB.

Head space in the cooler is a non-issue for heat loss, at least if my experience is any indicator. I've done grain bills smaller than Ed's Haus Ale in my 10-gallon Igloo, and lost nary a degree.

Carry on

I'd follow Ed's directions. By doing no sparge you are going to hurt your efficiency badly. If this is your first rodeo, mash in as instructed, hit your temp and wait and see how if/how badly the headspace hurts your ability to hold the temp. I think you'll be fine.

You will not have a problem with headspace if you properly preheat. Use the 3.25 gallons of water, but go in at about 185F. Close the lid for 5 minutes. Open it, stir, measure the temp and wait until it drops to your strike temp of about 170F before you dough in. This process ensures that the cooler will have taken all the heat that it will before you introduce the grain.

too thin of a mash will dilute the enzymes you need for conversion, so you'll end up with more unconverted starches and less fermentables in your wort.

pre-heat your cooler MLT with hot tap water. that'll get teh inside around 125F. that means less heat loss when you dough in, and less loss in the headspace.

once you learn your system (equipment) you'll know how much heat is lost on average so you can account for it later.

AG brewing is more involved, but its still pretty damn forgiving.

Good info. Thanks!

I have both 20 and 40 qt MLT's, and brew 5g batches. The 40 qt takes more heat to pre-warm it, but I don't lose any more heat during the mash than I do with the 20 qt.
The sparge was a different story though. I usually fly spare for 60 - 90 minutes, and with no lid on the 10g cooler (that was the only way I could deliver the sparge water), I lost a lot of heat during the sparge. With the 5g cooler, I fed the sparge water through a drilled bucket lid that rested on top of the cooler, and the lid kept the heat in; but the lid wasn't big enough to fit the 10g. I solved the problem by drilling a hole in the 10g cooler lid, and mounting the sparge arm through the hole. This caused another problem. I had to reduce the sparge water temperature a couple degrees over what I used to use in the 5g MLT.

-a.

No, no and no. Follow Edworts mahsing schedule, or if you want to be adventurous, Bobby M's all grain primer, No Mash out, double batch sparge is an excellent technique to start with and build upon.