Scaling Grainbill and Equipment Limitations

This could go in any number of categories...

In planning on performing some smaller, experimental batches, I have no problem in actually scaling down the recipe (thank you, BeerSmith).

My concern is whether I'll be able to collect 3gal boil volume from 5.5lbs grain. I'm wondering what the limitations are of batch sparging in my 5gal round falsebottom mash/lauter tun. Specifically, can anyone comment on how little grain these coolers can hold and still perform reliably? I'm ballparking that with 5.5lbs of grain the bed will be about 8 inches...

Thanx.

If you batch sparge, it doesn't matter at all. The grainbed could be 1/2" thick and it won't affect efficiency. At some point you get to the point where you'd have to dump the mash into a strainer instead of using your manifold/braid but that's probably much less than 5lbs.

Thanks - that's what i was thinking. But, i just wasn't sure how much grain was needed to "set" the bed and allow for decent filtering/clarifying. Just didn't want to plan on straining if i didn't have to. You know - try to keep everything identical to a "normal" batch size.