More extraction from longer steep?

[BWRIGHT]

I'm pretty satisfied with my brown ale. Only thing is it is slight lacing in flavor. Felt like the malt came through fine, but the stepping grains didn't do as well as I'd hoped. Did not know at the time not too, but I steeped my grains in the whole boil amount of 6.25 gallons. I now steep with 2 or 3 gallons. My question is, if I hold my grains around 153F, for more than the 20 minutes that is called for, will I get better extraction and flavor? I've got a recipe here. Maybe someone can critique it. Evan helped me find something. I'm trying to duplicate Sam Adam's Summer Ale.

5 lbs. light DME
1 lb. wheat (steeping)
.5 lb. Crystal malt 40L (steeping)

.25 oz bittered orange peel 15min boil
.25 oz lemon peel 10min boil
seeds of paradise (no idea how much to add)

.7 oz challenger hops (bittering) 60min
.5 oz herbshrucker hops (aroma) 10min
.5 oz herbshrucker hops (flavor) 5min

Should I leave the orange, and lemon peel, and seeds in the primary of filter out.

 

[malkore]

you'll get a little more flavor and color, but not tons.

I haven't had SA's summer ale, but I suspect its not supposed to be real malty.

If you're looking into making better beer, you might want to start doing some partial mashes. Gives you a lot more control over the malt profile.

 

[batesjer]

You should use a longer steep because the wheat needs to be mashed. If the grain needs to be mashed, but can convert its own sugars just do an extended steep, or partial mash. As far a chocolate malt or crystal longer then 30 minutes isn't going to add a whole lot.

 

[malkore]

But if he plans to try to mash that wheat, he needs to cut way back on the water volume, lest his pH gets out of whack because the grain to water ratio is way too high.

with that grain bill, I'd go with a half gallon of water for steeping...a micro-mash.

If it were me going this route, I'd buy a 2 gallon cooler and just start doing mini-mashes with a few more pounds of grain. like BYO's counter top mash article.
http://byo.com/feature/1536.html