How would you BIAB this, given my equipment?

[BinghamtonEd]

Here's what I have available to me :
Turkey fryer burner
8 gallon pot
5 gallon cooler (the kind you make drinks in, not the kind you store bottles/food in)
BIAB bag

This will be my first all-grain BIAB, and I'm wondering what the best use of this equipment would be...
Mash in pot and top off after grain is pulled?
Mash in cooler, sparge in pot, and then empty cooler into pot?
Mash in pot, sparge in cooler, and empty cooler in pot?

My gut is telling me to mash in the cooler, sparge in the pot, and combine the two. The cooler would hold temp better than my pot, I think. Looking to do 10-12lbs of grain. If I do this, I assume I would just put strike water in cooler, add bag of grains. After an hour or so, pull the bag and sparge it in the pot for 10 minutes. Then carefully pour the contents of the cooler into the pot.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mb82]

Mash in pot sparge in cooler( with luke warm water) if you need to in order to hit your required volume. I wrap my pot in two old blankets and I don't lose more then 2 deg of temp over an hour even in near freezing weather.

But that is how I would do it personally.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

If my desired volume is 5.5g in the primary, would a 6.5 pre-boil volume (60 min boil) make sense?

Edit : Maybe closer to 7, to account for trub in the fermenter.

 

[mb82]

Yes if your boiloff rate is 1 gal per hour and unless your grain bill is huge I would think the 8 gal pot would work for that without a sparge.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Yes if your boil off rate is 1 gal per hour and unless your grain bill is huge I would think the 8 gal pot would work for that without a sparge.

Yes I agree, easiest approach is a full volume BIAB, I suggest 6 gallons strike water b/w 160 - 164 degrees, add 10 lbs grain and resultant volume of mash is 6.8 gallons, allow to mash 1 hour insulating the kettle w/ blankets.

Add approx. 1 gallon boiling (if possible) water to your kettle and stir well, let rest a few minutes and stir again. Remove bag, accounting for absorption of 1 gallon you are left with 6 gallons preboil. Boil down to 5 gallons. Little short, lets try a sparge.

Perhaps a simple sparge is better, Mash as above w 5 gallons, but sparge w/ 2.5 gallons in your cooler, total collected will be 6.5 gallons preboil.

 

[BinghamtonEd]

Perhaps a simple sparge is better, Mash as above w 5 gallons, but sparge w/ 2.5 gallons in your cooler, total collected will be 6.5 gallons preboil.

I like the sound of that.