It is common for brewers to use pots in the 2-5 gallon size range. When making 5 gallons of beer it is optimal to start with 5 1/2 to 6 gallons of wort and boil it down to 5 gallons. Since this is not always feasible, here are some helpful ideas to avoid the caramelization of the malt sugars which often lead to the creation of excessively sweet tasting beer, and darkening beer color.

1. Boil with as much water as you safely can. This will reduce the viscosity of your wort, and reduce risk of scorching. It would also be a good idea to keep a few quarts of water at a boil nearby for topping up during boil.
   
   
2. Do not boil anything that does not require long boil times. Coopers Beer Kits, Honey, brown sugar, invert sugar, Belgian candi sugar, corn sugar can all be added with a few minutes left in the boil to achieve the desired results. This again reduces the viscosity of your wort through most of the boil.
   
   
3. Only boil for 45 minutes maximum. This will prevent excessive caramelizaton as well. "Conventional wisdom" says that a 60-75 minute boil is necessary to achieve complete protein coagulation and hop utilization. While this is true, a 45 min. boil provides adequate coagulation and we recommend slightly overcompensating with your hop usage.
   
   
4. If you are using an electric range, only apply as much heat as is necessary to achieve a soft (not a rolling) boil. This again runs against conventional wisdom, but our experience is that aggressively boiling a couple of gallons of water with all the ingredients for 5 gallons of beer virtually assures excessive caramelization. If possible place a diffuser between the electric element and your pot. This too reduces possible scorching.
   

Following the above procedures will reduce excessive sweetness in your beer.

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