Effienciency Sparge/No Sparge

[Jboggeye]

Hi Guys,
I did DRIPA last night and had a ton of questions that came up.

I BIAB no sparge in a 10 gallon cooler

OG is supposed to be 1.073, recipe is 5 gallons.

I mashed in with 7 gallons, got 5.5 into the kettle, my preboil was 1.054, so my efficiency was HORRIBLE (luckily I boiled down + extract for smaller batch)

This leads me to rethink my system, especially for brews over 1.050.

If I were to Sparge for this brew, I would need:

4 gallons in Mash (1.5 absorb)= 3 in kettle
3 gallons in Sparge = 3 in kettle
1 gallon boilloff = 5 gallon end of boil

Now the problem:
I would need to hit 1.08+ for 1st runoff and 1.06+ for second (or a variant)
that seems impossible to me right now. (at 50% efficiency no sparge)
I can't fathom getting so much extract in so little water

Would changing my mash volume from 7 to 4 give me the same amount of sugar except concentrated?

Are people's first runoff along the lines of 1.090 for high gravity beers?
will the "proper" mash ratio of 1.5qt/lbs help efficiency?
How many gravity points can one expect in sparge?
Is my 1 gallon per hour boiloff an issue (too little?)


Thanks!

 

[Dynachrome]

Spit your water up something like 50/25/25 and don't drain the first mash totally - leave it mostly really wet..... then do the two sparges - drain it all off at the last sparge - mix it back together and take your OG reading.

You can cool a sample or calc it to room temperature to get the specific gravity...

I'd worry more about your boil time for hops BTW. boil for a while to increase SG before yo start adding hops if tou'd like.

The amount of alcohol is't as imortant to me.