Steeping grains for a full boil

I recently bought a turkey fryer with a 7.5G pot for my transition to AG. I am still extract brewing with steeped grains and late extract additions, but am now doing full boils (with the proper hops adjustments).

My question is: I have always steeped my grains is approx. 2 .5G of water because I could only do partial boils. Now that I can steep in more water, should I? Is there any benefit/detriment to steeping in, say, 6.5G of water?

The long and short answer to the question is it depends on the grains and what you hope to achieve by steeping them. If you expect some conversion even 2.5 gallons is to much water for a couple lbs of grain. If you are just pulling color and flavor out of the grains, it does not matter how much water you steep in.

Again this varies by the type of grain you are steeping, for example some grains crystal malts for example have no active enzymes in them and lack the ability to convert the complex starches, so in this case you are just pulling out some flavor and some color from the grain. If you are putting in 2 row (stupid I know, but this is an example) there are active enzymes that can breakdown the starches, but if you put 2lbs of 2 row in 2.5 gallons of water it will be so diluted it won't get proper conversion.

I hear people talk about tannin extraction when steeping grains in a shole bunch of water, but I never experienced it. I would regularly steep two or three pounds of specialty malts in five gallons of water with no problems.


TL

There was an article in BYO a while back about steeping grain, I believe too much water is not good, I'll go try to dig it up.

I'm not trying to mash anything. Just color and flavor extraction.

Plamer states that it is ideal to match 1 gallon of water per 1 lb of grains for steeping.