Enigmatic, but good, wheat beer

Last June I brewed up a batch of what I thought would be a pale wheat - but the end result wasn't pale at all - more the color you'd expect from a Amer. Amber Ale or something in that direction.

The recipe was as follows:
Pre-Boil
1/2 lb Flaked Wheat steeped at 160 deg. 30 min.

Boil -
3.3 lbs Wheat LME
1 lb Wheat DME
1 lb Extra Light DME
1 oz Crystal @ 45 min.
1 oz Liberty @ 45 min.
Boil Volume - 3 Gallons

Wyeast 3056 Bavarian Wheat pitched at 70 deg, fermented 14 days in primary at 68 deg and another two weeks in secondary at same temp. Yes, that is a while for a primary ferment but life got hectic and I kinda forgot about the thing for a bit there.

At this point I am thinking that the partial-volume boil cause the extract to caramelize - though my relative inexperience tells me that any random combination of factors may be at work here.

For the record - the beer turned out really well, with a mother of a head on it, and I am more interested in replicating this and knowing what is going on than correcting this particular recipe. Any information would be great, thanks.

 

First off, it isn't really necessary to primary/secondary. I just primary for an extended time, won't hurt your beer. My guess is the temp was a little high on your boil after you added the LME? Were there lines/gunk on the bottom of your brew pot? If you boil it too hot or too long, or just don't mix thoroughly, it can actually caramelize resulting in a darker wort. This could also aid in giving a light of real fine head. *stabs in the dark*

 

The darker color came from the LME.

 

As others have said it's the extract.

The more concentrated your wort and the longer you boil, the worse it will be. If you hold off and add your extract late in the boil it might help out a bit.

 

Thanks for the info guys. Good to know what went on there.

Another question though - Does adding the extract later in the boil have any other effects on the wort other than to lighten the color - anything to do with bittering or the like?