burnt taste in wort. suggestions?

Okay, so yesterday i brewed a batch where i steeped 1lb of 120L caramel malt between 165 and 150, for 45 minutes.
Then added:
3lbs plain wheat dme and 3 lbs extra light dme
Hops at 60, 20, and 0
4 oz Lactose at 15
a tsp of Irish moss at 10
And 2oz vanilla extract at 0

I'm using white labs kolsch yeast, and I'll be racking to a secondary over vanilla beans soaked in vodka.


I assume i had the heat up too had because when i tasted the wort, it had a boot of a burnt flavor. I think part of it could be the "toasty" flavor from the caramel malt, but the flavor was pretty pronounced.

I know there's not much i can do now, and I'm not worried about it, but work is slow so I'm just wondering how much this flavor will mellow out. Or if there's anything i can do to help it mellow out. Anyone have any advice/opinions/suggestions/revelations?

P.S. The recipe is my own variation (based on what i had available to me) of cheese's vanilla caramel cream ale.

It's a lot of crystal malt and 120 has more of a stone fruit, rummy, burnt sugar flavor than lighter crystal malts, so it's possible that's the source.

Is it possible you scorched the extract? Was this a partial boil or full boil? Did you add all the extract at the beginning of the boil? How did you heat the boil?

I started the boil with 7 gallons, and heated with a propane burner. I sprinkled and stirred the extract in at the beginning of the boil, trying to avoid clumps. I kept the boil fairly low, but probably more heat than i needed (my last boil stopped boiling midway through and i didn't notice for like 15 minutes, so i probably over compensated).

I wanted 90L caramel malt, but my LHBS only had 40 and 120, so i got 120 thinking the darker color would look better, I'm pretty new so i wasn't exactly sure of the taste differences.

Crystal 120 doesn't have the roasted taste of the darker roasts. Did you have any scorching on the bottom of the pan, or any very darks parts of your trub? If so, you may have scorched your extract. LME is notorious for darkening during the boil. If you use LME, consider adding it at or near the end of the boil. You only need to pasteurize it.