Understanding the boiling process of malts/sugars

One of the kits I worked on a few days ago called for half the malt to be boiled for 60 minutes while the other half for the last 15 minutes. Of course I did not read the instructions till after everything was done ; instead I boiled all of the malt for the whole 60 minutes.

I am trying to understand the chemistry (if any) of why the recipe called for half the malt to be boiled for only 15 minutes. What kind of a difference would that have made?

Thanks for any responses

CC

It's an extract technique if you do partial boils. What you are trying to avoid is a maillard reaction where the sugars caramelize in the pot during the boil and darken the wort.

Why add any malt at the beginning? Do the sugars help with "utilizing" the hops?

From what I've read, boiling the malt will darken it and the longer it boils the greater chance of a burnt taste. So if you want a lighter beer then do late additions.

Like Beernik said it is to keep your finished product a lighter color while using the same amount of LME/DME.

Hop utilization depends partially on the specific gravity of the wort. Higher specific gravity slows down utilization. A low specific gravity will result in fast utilization. I have heard that it can lead to vegetal flavors if you aren't careful.