A question of method...

OK, maybe I am just reading too many threads, and getting too excited about this whole " thing we all love" , but I had a question occur to me last night, and I cannot get it out of my mind.

Maybe you can help.

I have dabbled so far as brewing goes - just a few batches, all with extracts. I enviously have read the AG stuff, and know I will be heading to that side of the room before too long, but wait...

What about my steeping grains? I have been steeping, draining ( not squeezing ) and then feeding them to my chickens.

Later I have to add water to my bucket to get to the 5 gals.

Why not heat a second pot with the estimated amount I need to add later, "sparge" the grains after I take them from my initial pot, and cool this while every thing else boils - add it back at the end.

Am I nuts? Or is this a standard noob question? Or has anyone done it?

Really - looking for any and all feedback, opinion, or experience here.

Thanks!

What are you aiming to get out of this?
Sparging is to rinse all the remaining sugars out of the grains. For extract batches the grains impart very little to the the overall beer, they are there primarily for the changing the flavor profile. With that in mind, it seems like an extra step for no reason.

Yes you could do this. Make sure you boil it for a bit to kill any bugs in there. But then you could chill it in the fridge while the wort boils.

Or, you could boil it with the rest of the stuff, and then top off with plain water. I don't see a big difference.

Cool - I really had no idea if I would get any benefit at all from it - I'm simply curious by nature I guess