Extract w Specialty Grain Water Question

I am a total newbie. I brewed a kit for the first time last month and now I am ready to take a step forward by brewing an extract w/ specialty grain batch.

I've been searching for a recipe and I noticed that all recipes are usually for 5 gallons. They specify the amount of malt extract, grain and hops but its not clear how much water to add. I've gathered that you use 2-3 gallons for the steeping and then you add the extract (half before hopping and half on the last minutes of the boil). However that would make it 1-2 gallons short. Do you have 1-2 gallons in the fermenter and it gets mixed in with the wort? Just want to make sure I end up with the right amount of liquid!

 

top off to 5 gal somewhere along the process if not at the end.

 

How did you do it with your first kit?

Generally, extract brewing, whether with or without steeping grains, involves a partial boil, meaning you are adding water to the wort after the boil to get your final gravity. You will need to make up for the amount of water not added before the boil, plus the amount boiled off, which can be well over a gallon depending on the boil rate. The best way to do,this is to have water that you pre boiled, or that you otherwise know is sanitized already, and chill it to near freezing. At that temperature, it will rapidly reduce your wort temperature close to yeast pitching temps. You would add the water to the wort until your total in fermenter volume is reached, so you will want markings on your fermenter, boil pot, or both to assist with this.

 

If you have access to a pot bigger than 5 gallons- 8 to 10 gallons, then I would use that and do a full boil if you have a heat source strong enough

 

Cooling the water seems like a great idea since I've been using bottled water. The tap water here in Belgium is super hard and I can get the bottle water pretty cheap.