Boil and mash in same pot?

[CLMCHENRY]

Can I use a pot like this for heating strike water,a batch mash, and the boil? http://spikebrewing.com/products/12-gallon-stainless-2-horizontal-couplers
Then I would only need a pot to heat sparging water? 3 Gallon big enough?
I'm getting ready for my first all grain and am trying to start with as little equipment as possible and go from there. Anything else that I would have to have other then a tube screen and a false bottom?

 

[twistr25]

I would think you could do it if you were doing a BIAB, other than that it would be an awful lot of effort.

 

[SMc0724]

I use a big pot similar to this for partial mash in a bag, just as you describe, and it works great. Such a big pot is only necessary if you plan on doing large batches in the future. BTW, I think of sparging as optional with partials.

 

[Pie_Man]

Yes, you can mash and boil in this pot. Personally, I'd probably go with a 15+ gallon, but you can certainly work with the 12. If you're not going to do BIAB, a false bottom would be need so that you can lauter. A friend of mine that uses this method will mash in the pot, vorlauf, lauter, batch sparge (you could fly sparge as well), vorlauf, then drain again into a bucket. He'll then quickly dump the grains, spray the pot clean with a hose, return the wort, and begin the boil. I think he uses a 20 gallon pot, but he'll also brew 10 gallon batches.

As far the HLT, I suppose a three gallon would be enough for a five gallon batch. You might want to upgrade to a larger HLT down the road, but a three gallon will work.

 

[kwingert]

I think it would work. If 3 gallons is not enough to sparge, you could batch sparge, heat up more water, then add the rest to the mash. The drain to your bucket.