Late to the party here, but I think this general philosophy should be stickied somewhere. I've heard it said before in other places as well, mainly the BN, that it ain't about wort production as much as its about fermentation. I'd gladly trade my mash tun in before I gave up my digitally controlled ferm fridge, and o2 kit. And now after reading threads in here about repitching slurry using a measured amount of slurry based on batch and OG size, pitching the right amount of viable yeast has drastically increased the quality of my beers. Next up, a firm handle on water and mash chemistry.