Boil to agressive?

I am still a beginning brewer and have had my last few batches of extract belgian wheat turn out darker... also the alcohol is a little "hot" or "biting". Anyone know what i can do to fix thoes problems.

P.S. I washed my equipment and bottles with dawn dish soap. Was that a bad idea? Thanks in advance.

If you put the extract in for the full boil, it will come out darker. Put a small amount of extract in at the start of the boil and don't put the rest in until near the end of the boil. See: http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/02/20/better-beer-with-late-malt-extract-additions/

If the beer has a "hot" alcohol flavor, you may be fermenting at too high of a temperature. Get your fermentation temperatures down into the low end of what the yeast says is an acceptable range and that flavor should go away.

Welcome!

Hard to know for sure without knowing more about your process and recipe so these are only preliminary thoughts.

Are you doing a concentrated boil? This could darken the color. So could less then fresh extract.

The "hot and biting" is most likely a fermentation issue - most likely under pitching and/or fermenting too warm.

Using standard dish soap is indeed a bad idea. If used it needs to be well washed and then sanitized with a no-rinse sanitizer like Starsan. PBW or (unscented) Oxyclean-type product is best for cleaning.

Good to know... i fermented at 68°F for the entire fermentation. Although, it did hit 70 on the frist day of active fermentation. I was meticulous with the washing and then sanitizing with starsan though. I will not use dish soap again.

How long has it been bottled? Also what particular yeast is being used? 68-70 sounds like a decent range.

Really for cleaning bottles a rinse with hot water is all that is needed. They only get gunky if you leave them sitting after use. I also only do a hot water rinse with my equipment right after use. The key is on brew day and bottling day sanitizing before use.

I used Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat. The beer has been in the bottle for 2 weeks yesterday.

Did you take FG and OG readings? Or what did the recipe say about ABV? My guess is it needs to age for at least a couple more weeks.

Was the 68 - 70 the beer temperature or ambient? The beer will normally get warmer than ambient.

My OG was 1.054 my FG was 1.012, ABV 5.35%... the beer temp was 68°F not ambien.

How do you know that it was an alcohol bite and not hops or something else? Extract is unpredictable and depending on how much water you put in your boil that can change the IBU.

Take the kettle off the heat before adding extract. Get it thoroughly dissolved before re-applying heat. Otherwise, some of it can scorch on the bottom.

And ditto on the late extract addition. Add only part of it early, then the rest near the end of the boil.

At Only 2 weeks in bottle it is still young. See what happens to it over the next month or so.