BIAB 3 gallon brew

Hi,
I've made 3 brews with the BIAB with 70% efficiency.
I mash 1 hour in a 5 gallon cooler with 3 gallons of water. I sparge for 10 minutes in brewpot, with 2.5 gallons, by lifting grain bag out of the cooler and into brewpot.
For my next few brews I'm making relatively small gravity beers, and would like to try a "no sparge." (it saves time and sounds alot more fun than sparging in a BAG)


I can't quite fit my entire boil volume into my 5 gallon cooler (mash), along with my grain.
(Let's say 7 pounds of grain, plus 5.5 gallons of water, which would give me 5 gallons in my 5 gallon pot.)

So I am thinking of doing this, and need some input:

1. Mash with 4 gallons of water
2. start collecting wort
3. Add 1.5 gallons of (hot) water once level lowers a little

I am thinking that I can't mash with ALL the boil volume (5 gallons), but I can mash with MOST of the boil volume and add the REST after taking out some wort. I feel like I could add some hotter water (170) to help with draining the entire volume.

What are your thoughts?

I have been brewiing 2.5 gallon batches lately. I use a Rubbermade 5 gallon cooler that I added a ball valve and stainless screen. I was sparging, but it wasn't working out. I used too much water and kept diluting the wort too much. Now, I am doing a no-sparge. I love it. It is easy, and I cut my brewing time by an hour. I use 3 gallon Better Bottles now. I get 18-20 bottles per batch. I brew in about 3 hours.

Thanks for the reply,
So you're saying I could do it, but I would probably need to cut down my batches to 2.5 gallons?
I am basically going to do an "no sparge," except that I can't fit my 5 gallons of boil water AND my grains in the 5 gallon cooler. So I leave out 2 gallons to add to to the cooler once I've drained enough wort.

Does that sound like a good idea to you?

I've been doing 3 gallon in a 5 gallon pot. I posted photos of the process it a while back.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/simple-bib-small-batch-method-146872/

Thanks Ghack, why do you feel the masheout is necessary? I've often heard it's not very useful for homebrewers.

In the BIAB method I figured without any real sparging it was important to get any sugars in the grains flowing and in solution.

I've always mashed out before sparging top get the sugars flowing. I think there is a noticeable change in the viscosity of the wort. However, I am not terrible concerned about the temp dropping off during the process. I think heating everything up to that initial 168-70 is the key. In the past while using a 5 gallon bucket and false bottom LT, I have hit the initial temp and had it drop off quite a bit without any loss of efficiency. I have not tried a no mashout brew.

I think your right about the mash out and I do one as well. I've used this method exclusively for the last 30 batches or so. The method is quite simple and I achieve 75% efficiency without a problem. Less equipment = less clean up = shorter brew day.

You can do a multi-step mash. Stir the while the flame is on, and with the veggie steamer in the bottom you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I've moved on to a keggle for the last 10 batches and use a pump now. I did try to recirc to a cooler as a mash tun for a few batches. It was more trouble than it was worth. I can control my temps easier in the keggle. Now I recirc into the top of my bag in the keggle. I'll leave the flame on very low and keep very stable mash temps this way. The wort is much less cloudy, and I think cleans up faster when conditioning.

If using a kettle without recirc your wort will be much more cloudy. It will clean up, but it does take longer in my experience. It produces beer of equal quality as a traditional mash regardless. One thing I found that helps, but isn't necessary is straining the wort through another paint bag. I sanitize it and put it in my bucket. It catches quite a lot of trub, but with the single vessel recirc I do now its not needed.

Thanks for all your input, this is really interesting. I was given a 10 gallon cooler, so once I brew I'll post what I decided on as a process. I'm looking forward to trying a few different things.
I will definitely do a masheout, although it will be by adding hot water to the cooler, not heating up the entire mash like you guys are doing.