Hi Brian;
I'm also interested in this topic so I've done a lot of reading up on it to satisfy my own curiosity. I'd also like to share what I've learned, but I'm no expert. Perhaps others might help out (when they get the chance).
Having said this, all this is actually in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics according to
Alan Guth (the grand-daddy of the inflation part of BBT). I'd suggest having a read up on his link in Wiki.
I'd also check out supercooling and phase transitions of false vacuums. Quantum mechanics suggests that the initial enery releases may have been from the breaking of symmetry. Good descriptions of all of this are in Wiki.
Hope this helps.
Cheers