AHS extract kit

So I picked up the AHS Alaskan Amber kit from AHS the other day and want to see if what I'm planning is wrong or effed up. So, tell me what you think.

I have a SS turkey frier pot that I planned to use building this beer; i.e. we'll be outside and not on the stove top. AHS instructions seem to be for stove top brewing, starting off only bringing 2 gallons of water to boil and steeping the grains in that 2 gallons of water.

Do you think it would be ok to start with 5 gallons and basically follow these instructions to make my beer?
http://cruisenews.net/brewing/partial_mash/page3.php

that will work, you will get a little more bitterness from the hops with the larger boil amount.

In that case, do you think it would be wise to lower the bittering hops time from 60min down to 45 min to solve that problem?

I've done a few kits from AHS so far.

There shouldn't be an issue as long as you end up with less than 5.25 gallons of wort at the end.

I have an electric setup but I do:

2.5 gallon initial boil
1.0 gallon sparge over spent grains
1.0 gallon addition before boil

so the actual boil is 4.5 gallons -- then top off to 5.25 after racking to primary.

Ok, very cool. Thanks guys.

I'd boil like normal for now. If you notice your beers are consistently bitter, then adjust.

i do the AHS extract kits outside all the time. you add another gallon after steeping before the boil anyway. its still not a full boil, but it doesn't need to be. i have followed their directions and never have been let down.

Thanks for the input, we'll see how things go this weekend!

Can you do a full boil with extract? What are the downsides?

I do AHS extract kits with a full boil and it works great. You want to steep the grains in the suggested 2gal of water to avoid extracting bad tannins. After steeping add a little under 4 gals (bringing you to just shy of 6 gal) to account for boil off. Then proceed as usual. You'll want a wort chiller to get the full volume down to pitching temp quickly. I use a turkey fryer burner outside. You may have to adjust your starting volume based on your burn off rate but just under 6gal is working perfectly for me in a 7.5gal brew pot.

There aren't any downsides other than needing to heat a lot more water and the need to cool a much larger volume. You get better hop utilization in a full boil and I think they come out better but that's just a subjective opinion.