Wort Darkening

[Western Brewer]

Just been reading a reply to a letter in the latest BYO mag. Someone like me wanted to do a half size batch of a brew using extract. It sounded like he just wanted to reduce the about of water, this or the person answering him misunderstood the question as the reply implied that the reduction would lead to the wort being darker afetr boiling than the original 5 gallon recipe. Is this correct? Surely if the amount of extract is also halved it should come out the same colour.
Any ideas on this?

[steve_flack]

If everything is halved then it should be similar. It might not be the same, as if your using the same heating method you may be putting a greater thermal load on the wort resulting in more caramelisation. This is all arm waving though....

[steve_flack]

If everything is halved then it should be similar. It might not be the same though, as if your using the same heating method you may be putting a greater thermal load on the wort resulting in more caramelisation. This is all arm waving though....

[oxford brewer]

I beleive some people put extracts in towards the end of the boil when making light beers to avoid this caramelisation.

I did the same on my last brew,as it is to be a light cloured beer,i added the 2nd can of extract 10 minutes before the end of the boil(not sure what it has done to the utilization of the hops though?).

Colin

[steve_flack]

I did the same on my last brew,as it is to be a light cloured beer,i added the 2nd can of extract 10 minutes before the end of the boil(not sure what it has done to the utilization of the hops though?).

Your hop utilisation will be higher and the beer more bitter as the gravity was lower in the boil.

[oxford brewer]

I did the same on my last brew,as it is to be a light cloured beer,i added the 2nd can of extract 10 minutes before the end of the boil(not sure what it has done to the utilization of the hops though?).

Your hop utilisation will be higher and the beer more bitter as the gravity was lower in the boil.

It wasnt that heavily hopped for bittering(26.9 IBU's whatever that means )so it should be ok with half the total LME(3kg) added towards the end hopefully!!!

Colin

[Western Brewer]

Further to my orginal post. Would the wort also darken in an AG brew with halved ingredients?