Brewing 1st batch tomorrow and have a few questions

So I am brewing my first batch tomorrow (yay). I have read many posts and still a little confused as far as hop utilization/late extract additions. I have a 42 quart brew kettle and 1/2 in 50 foot chiller so I will be doing a full boil. I have a kit from midwest brewers to start (the Autumn Amber Ale). It has specialty grains and LME.

My questions:

1)Can I steep my specialty grains on the stovetop in say 2 gallons of water and then add this to my brew kettle (on a bayou classic sp50 burner that I got for 8 bucks) and then add my ~4.5 gallons of spring water to get to 6.5 gallons pre-boil volume? Or will it better to steep my grains in the total pre-boil volume in my brew kettle.

2) The kit call for partial-boil with a top off to get to 5 gallons post boil. Since I am doing a full boil will my hop utilization be better therefore needing less hops to get the same IBUs. (I am not a huge fan of bitter beers so I would prefer being slightly more malty sweet vs hoppy bitter).

3) I was planning on doing a late extract addition with ~2/3 of the LME if it is beneficial to keep it lighter in color. Do I need to do this? Of is this unnecessary (in another kit from Rebel Brewers it says to do late extract additions so I keep getting confused).

4) I have been tinkering with Hopville/Beer calculus and can post the results or you can look up the recipe and see if it looks right. I have decreased the hops slightly and added some of the LME as a late addition and my number still seem to come out ok. Is this software pretty accurate for what I am doing?

Thank you everyone for the help and I can post the recipe/procedures provided with the kit if necessary.

I do have my sanitation under control (oxyclean and starsan) and I promise to relax and have fun tomorrow.

1) Steep seperately in about 1.5 qts per pound of grain. I get it close on the stove then just put the pot in the oven set at 150 or 155 and leave it for 30 minutes.

2) Your IBU's should be fine even with the full boil (looks like you addressed this in #4 with the software)

3) No need to do late additions, with a full boil you don't have the "high boil gravity" issues.

You are set my friend...have fun!!

Thanks Heli. I am super excited.

Actually you are correct in your Late Malt Addtion thinking:

late Malt editions will help keep your beer lighter and help w/hop utilization. Software keeps track of all this; Beersmith is what I use and they have a Late Malt Edition key for that reason.

Well brew day went off without any major hitches. I thought my wort chiller would be no good. I made it before I had my brew kettle and the chiller is tall and kinda skinny and the kettle is much larger diameter but it chilled the wort down to 76 degrees in only 13 minutes. The only other question I had that I didn't ask before doing is I used bags for my hops to help keep the junk out of my fermenter. Will this affect my hop utilization any? Also what temp is best to ferment at when using the generic muntons dry yeast. Thanks for everyones help.

Hop bags are great, I particularly like the fine mesh ones from Northern Brewer...nothing gets in the wort.

For ales keep fermentation (wort temp) around 67F, for lagers 50-55F....you can check the recommended range for the yeast on the manufacturers website.

So now I am really worried that the bags that I used were too small. They are about half of the size of the ones that are sold at the homebrewer stores. I found these bags at big box store close by. Will hop utilization be really poor with the bag being so small? Should I plan on dry hopping (not in the original recipe) ? I did notice a lot of hoppy aroma in the bags after pouring my wort in the FV. or just RDWHAHB