i've done primarily a mini-mash with some extract. about four to six pounds of grain and three pounds of dried extract. what i'd been doing is bringing an amount of water, depending on my amount of grains, up to about 175F, then doughing in my grain. give it a whirl or six to mix it up, then tossing it in the oven on the lowest setting for an hour or so... i'd been pouring it out into a huge collander that sits atop my eight gallon brew kettle and sparging with about five gallons of liqour at 170... i've used a racking cane and siphon hose to get the hot water from the water kettle onto the grain bed adn driained into the kettle... now i've always been concerned about a stuck runoff from the initial pour, but eveything always seemed to filter out just fine, cause the colander always remained full of wort whith the grains whilst i was pouring... then i could get the fresh/hot water onto the grain bed soon enough to keep a decent level of moisture in the grains...
not perfect, but it improved the taste of me beer by like six hundred
i've gotten the gear together for my madien voyage of all grain (not a colman cooler either ;O) and the result is sitting in the primary right now... i know something worked cause the yeast fermented. i initially used about eight pounds of malt grain... i'm thinking of a stainless steel screen above the ghetto manifold i had cobbled outta some tubing to the spigot on the five gallon brew kettle, this should help the grains settle better, without jaming into the holes in the mainifold and also allow for a better bed of water..... i figure i can get about ten pounds of grain and the requisite water in there to mash... that should yield me some pretty decent five gallon batches.
i am a big fan of the carapils malt... it really only needs a short exposure to heated liquor to get you some goodies, and gives a nice taste. i try and put at least a pound of it into all my beer.
after that just plain old british two row pale malt i use as a base. in the past i've used about two pounds of this but will go to six now with all grain.
also liek the belgian biscut malt, but have learned to respect it as it can give your beer a real sharp/bitter taste even before the insane high aa hops i throw in...
the other one i really like is german pilsner malt, i like the flavor and color of this, even if i'm only making ale...
i'm no expert or even very experienced, but the above i've found to bring me a relative amount of success, anyway it's enough to keep me brewing...
oh and if i don't count the cost of equipment, i've gon from thirty bucks a batch to about 15 dollars... not to shabby considering i'm the shantiest of drunkards and can put it away faster than i can brew it