Amount of steeping water?

How much water should be used when steeping grains? I've seen instructions with extract kits that say to use as much as 2.5 gallons but have read that you should use less for better starch conversion. Any thoughts? I made a cream ale kit from NB brewer last night and without thinking accidentally steeped in a full 5 gallons. For some reason I ended up with an OG of 1.056 on a kit that was supposed to be closer to 1.040. I did not add any extra fermentables. The kit was supposed to be a pound of specialty grains... I didn't weigh them but I think it was a bit more than a pound.

Thanks.

Wow that is a pretty big jump in OG. Do not think it will ruin or even change the taste. 1.040 looks a little low for an OG. Maybe the instructions are wrong. What is the recipe?
Maybe run if through whatever brewing software you use or post it and people on here can.

The OG was probably higher b/c you boiled off about a half gallon of wort and ended up with less than 5 gallons. If you add water to your fermenter to bring the level back to 5 gallons it should correct your OG to the recipes' intended gravity.

As far as the steeping you're not really trying to do a mash so the volume of water is not significant. I use about half of the total volume of water to steep in for 20 - 25 minutes at about 155 deg F. and then remove the grains and add the rest of the water before bringing to a boil. The steeped grains add color and some body/mouthfeel to the finished brew.

It's hard to get the OG wrong with a kit. I'd go with the kit numbers rather than yours. For example; 1 lb of LME in 5 gallons will give you 1.007, and 1 lb of DME will give you 1.009 in 5 gallons.

The grain will not make much difference. Steeping 1 lb of Crystal would probably get you around 1.004 for the 5 gallons. Extract kits can be easily calculated. I'd suspect it was not fully mixed, and you got some of the heavier wort in your check. Did you take it from a spigot at the bottom of the fermenter?

You can use as much water as you like for steeping. All steeping is doing, is dissolving the sugars that are on the grains, and rinsing them off. Mashing is different; when using grains that have not already been converted, you need to have a relatively thick mixture to get the enzymes in suspension, but not too much liquid that the enzymes can't find the starches. For reference, when mashing, you would use somewhere around 1.25 quarts per lb of grain.

I did take the reading before adding additional water. That might have been the culprit. It ended up about a gallon low due to evaporation and some trub left behind. Here is a link to the instructions which start out by listing the ingredients.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/CreamAle.pdf

Temp on the sample when I took the hydrometer reading was close to 60.

As for software, I use the ibrewmaster app for iPad. With the exception of this one time it is always spot on with estimated color, OG and FG. Tons of recipes. I live in the Milwaukee, WI area and there is a Northern Brewer store about 10 minutes from my house and there are over 100 free NB recipes in the app. Don't remember what it cost, but well worth it. It logs individual batches, and the timers and shedule are fantastic. I get a pop up on the iPad letting me know when to transfer and such.