I was quite pleased to receive my 3 gal cooler from Rubbermaid last Friday. Their website still said processing and their call center people said it would take 3 weeks to deliver. I was pleasantly surprised to receive it in 1 week.
I ran to my LHBS and bought the ingredients to brew an ESB using the partial mash method with a grain bag that was described in a BYO article (link above). I followed the procedure that was listed in the BYO article but had a lower OG than expected. I measured 1036 at 66 degrees F, as opposed to the 1044 that the recipe stated. Not trusting the original method, I stirred the wort in the primary for a few minutes (with a sanitized spoon) and took another sample out. It was the same gravity.
My guess is that the grain bag method isn't real efficient. I wasn't planning on brewing a low alcohol session beer this time around, but I wanted to make one eventually. I am going to let the fermentation go and see how it ends up.
Before my next batch, I am going to do the mods and add the braided hose and valve. It gets to be a pain in the arse holding the spout open while collecting the liquid from the cooler. A ball valve would be much nicer.
Thanks again to everyone who has been contributing info on this thread and inspiring extract brewers, like myself, to take the next step in brewing.