This was great fun. I did the original post recipe yesterday.
Being my first mash, I did not have have the proper equipment. Or at least I didn't think I did. I tried putting my oats (quick oats) and grains in two grain bags and stuffing them into a pot with 2g of water. I got the temp to about 150 and put it in the oven for an hour. The temp did not hold well and was down to about 120 by the end.
Not knowing how it was going to turn out, I dumped my sacks into the 2g water in the pot and put it back on the burner, keeping it at 150-160 for another hour.
I went to the garage and found an old cooler. I scoured it with a brillo pad and then sanitized it good. When the mash was done, I poured it through a collander - the expandable rectangular kind - that I had placed over the cooler. After the grains drained into the cooler, I sparged with 3g of 150 degree water by pouring the water over the grains, letting them drain into the cooler.
Then I put the cooler on a chair and pulled the spigot, letting the wort pour into the brewing kettle. So basically, it was 5g of water minus whatever the grains absorbed.
After the hour boil, I cooled the wort, took a reading of 1.082(!), and transferred to the carboy. It needed another 2/3g of water to get it back to 5g. I don't know how much of that was boiled off vs soaked up by the grains. Anyone know how the water addition will affect the OG? I did not take another reading after that.
This was also my first time pitching with dry yeast. I did not hydrate it beforehand - just tossed it right in. The wort was a little less than 80 degrees at the time. Should I not have done that? I forgot to check in on it this morning before I left for work to see if there was any activity.
Overall, I was pleased that I ended up being able to mash without having to purchase any new equipment. It was really quite easy.
Thanks to all of you for the last few years' worth of comments on this thread! This one encouraged to try more all grain recipes.