Lighter color beer?

[gcobb74]

I always LME, my wheats and IPAs are always dark, how can I lighten up my beers? I brew 5 gallon batches and only boil 2.5 then add 2.5 cold water.... any suggestions? Is there another grain or ingredient I can add to lighten this up?

Appreciate the help!!

 

[atonofhops]

Try this, add 20% of your lme to the 2.5 gallon boil hop as normal, at flame out add the rest of the lme and force cool. Less lme in the boil=less sugar burning=lighter color. You could use extra light malt extract or go with a larger boil volume. In BYO magazine they discussed the subject. When I upgraded to a full 5 gallon boil in my extract days and did the 20% extract my beers cam out way lighter.

 

[Yooper]

There are a couple of things you can do. First, always use the lightest colored extract you can- extra light DME, pale LME, etc. Then, try to boil as much as you can. If you can fit 3.5 gallons in your pot, try that instead of 2.5 gallons. In general, the more you boil, the better.

And as was already mentioned, add the bulk of your extract at the end of the boil instead of at the beginning. That will make a huge difference in the color of the beer, and give a less "cooked extract" taste to the finished beer.

 

[Homercidal]

Switching to DME will probably help, as will late extract additions and increasing boil volume. Liquid extract is well known for being a bit darker than it's grain counterpart simply due to the processing it goes through.

 

[atonofhops]

Good point, I had forgotten about that.