A while ago, I was thinking of ordering the Newcastle clone from Austin Homebrew and I emailed them asking how I should alter their instructions if I was planning on mashing rather than steeping. Their response was:
"If you do mini mash in your cooler use the amount of grain the recipe calls for but use less water. Use 1.5 quarts of water to 1 lb. of grain. Example: The mini mash has 2.5lbs. of grain in it. So you want to use 3.75 quarts of water to mash the
grains. I hope this helps."
But, then I wonder (and did not follow up), how much water would I sparge with. I am guessing I would add enough water so that my pre-boil amount would total the amount that the instructions say to boil (which I think is 2.5 gallons in their recipes).
On a side note:
I ended up not doing this recipe and went for my first all grain recipe last night (a newcastle clone). My AG seemed to go great, but I spaced out and put all the hops in at the same time for a 90 minute boil (a reason not to drink too much and brew). I think that this beer is going to be way too bitter for my tastes, so when it is drinking time, I am probably going to have to pour half a beer into a pint glass and top it off with a less bitter beer.
-tired