Getting the most out of the grains.

All the brews i have done so far have been with extract and a small bag of grains steeped before adding the extarct. I was flipping though the clone brews book and noticed that for their newcastle clone, they have you dump the grains in a pot with 1/2 a gallon of 150 degree water, then strain it into your brew kettle and rinse with another 1/2 gallon of water. It seems to me like this would be the better way to do it as i would think you would get more out of the grain. Is there any draw backs of always doing this with all brews?

other than having to do the extra step, no. All of the brews in their next book, Beers Captured calls for that.

Call me old school. When I first got into brewing, grain bags were not in wide use and never used them. You can't convince me that steeping grains in a confining bag is an efficient process. Reminds me of trying to cool pasta in a colander by running cold water over them, the middle never getting much exposure. It is far more efficient to let them float freely in an ice water bath. I feel the main objective behind the idea of a grain/hop bag was to simplify the process of using grains/hops to an extract kit inorder to make it more appealing to a brewing market that would otherwise not be interested in the additional steps. Resulting in more sales and profit for the market. No matter, a noble concept that has made brewing more enjoyable for many and here to stay.

I asked this in a different thread somewhere but didn't get a response. Is there a HUGE, notable difference in grain efficiency when using bags as opposed to free floating them? I have strainer that I sit my grain bags in over the kettle, then I add the extra water to the "grain tea" from the steeping and sparge...

No, I've done it both ways and checked the gravities. Just use a bag that is large enough that the grain can move around AFTER it has absorbed water. My brewing buddy used to jamb the bags full of dry grain and cuss about the results. Bags are cheap.

I do mini-mashes in a bag. Of course, the bag is as big as the kettle.

I would have to agree with David 42. I have used bags for steeping since I started some 5 years ago. I have never had an issue with using them as long as there is enough space for the grains to move around. In addition, make sure you are not using a hop bag, as the mesh is to fine and that may lead to low yields.

Please take a look at this option as well. It works good and doesn't cost a fortune to build.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=8805