Missed my temps but preboil gravity came out ok?

I'm making a partial mash IPA. I was going to just use a pot with a grain bag to mash in but the pot I was going to use wasn't big enough so I used my bottling bucket as an impromptu mash tun. I heated some water first and poured it into the bucket to attempt to preheat it. Strike water was 168* and my initial mash temp was around 153*. I covered the bucket with a sleeping bag and when I checked about 20 minutes later the grain bed temp had dropped to around 142*. I added some more hot water to get the temp back up and let it finish mashing for another 30 minutes. Did a mashout with 170* water and a sparge with 170* water. According to beersmith if I take out the 1 lb of DME it says my preboil gravity should be 1.027 and my gravity was ~1.022. What effect is the lower mash temp going to have in the long run? I went ahead and added the DME and it's boiling now.

Here's the grain bill I used
2.5 lbs Briess 2-row Brewer's Malt
.5 lbs Briess Crystal 60L

I'm hoping it's going to come out alright because I have the perfect name for it. For now I'm going to crack a PA from my first batch so I can RDWHAHB.

A lower mash temp will yield a more fermentable wort and a drier beer with a lower finishing gravity. If you raised it back up, you'll probably not notice much difference.

The lower mash temp will result in a more fermentable wort, leading to a dryer end product and could lack some body. But it may end up perfect with the DME since extract isn't full fermentable!

Thanks for the responses. I have a partial mash kit coming from AHS tomorrow. I was going to brew it next week but that's going to be pushed back a couple weeks until I get my next pay check so I can build a proper mash tun.

For this beer I'm using Cluster, Centennial, and Cascade hops, so 3 C's. Since it's a Pale Ale (well IPA) I'm going to name it C3-PA. I've got a friend who's a Star Wars nut that is going to love it.

AWESOME name and idea!!! I am a huge star wars nerd so I LOVE it!

Wow, you must have a small kettle if your grain bill was only:
2.5 lbs Briess 2-row Brewer's Malt
.5 lbs Briess Crystal 60L

and you didn't have enough room in it.

I can do over 4lbs in a 3 gallon pot.

Or am I missing someting?

Wow, you must have a small kettle if your grain bill was only:

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My brew kettle is 5 gallons but the pot that I used for my first PM is only a little over a gallon. I probably could have mashed in my brew kettle but then I would have had to empty it to heat the sparge water. My house is large kettle deficient.

EddieB428 said:

My brew kettle is 5 gallons but the pot that I used for my first PM is only a little over a gallon. I probably could have mashed in my brew kettle but then I would have had to empty it to heat the sparge water. My house is large kettle deficient.

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4 words...Brew in a Bag It could change your life...and save you some money.

It's been pretty well covered, lower mash temp results in more fermentables, results in lower FG, results in drier beer. Wouldn't worry though, as you brought it back up and IPA's do well to finish drier and lower. You seem a little light on fermentables for the style, what is your batch size?

You seem a little light on fermentables for the style, what is your batch size?

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Oops, thought I had mentioned that. Batch size is 2 gallons. After all is said and done I ended up with about a 1.050 OG after temperature correction and I was shooting for about 1.054. On the bright side, I have a feeling this beer is going to be the clearest batch of the 3 I've made.

C3~PA! Awesome! May have to "borrow" the name!

I bottled this up today and ended up with 18 bottles. I was going to dry hop but didn't have time to get to the LHBS for hops. I had about 1/2 a bottle left over so I had my first taste test with it. OMG! If it tastes this good green and flat I can't wait until it's carbed and conditioned. Definately going to have to make a bigger batch of this.

Almost as good as my next two brew c3porter-o and darth malt