Interesting that you use the same technique, almost to the letter. I've found it works pretty well for the small-volume batches, and it cuts down the brew day time in a couple of ways. For anything larger, I break out the mash tun. As I mentioned upthread, I'm basically lazy, and will take the path of least resistance any time I can, so even though a mash tun is a little fussier, and takes more time, my desire to NOT have to lift a bag as heavy as that trumps everything else. Most of my 5-gallon AG batches take at least nine or ten pounds of dry grain. Heaven knows what it weighs after soaking up half the strike water.