Extract: How bad did I mess up? Steeped my grains ~13 degrees below optimal

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KeegsD

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When I was reading my thermometer to gauge my steeping temperatures, I had it turned to the C side, not noticing I kept it between 50-55 degrees C (122-131 degrees F) for my grains in my extract kit. I realized my mistake when I was checking to see if the wort was cool enough to pitch the yeast.

Will my witbier be drinkable? Even beer?

Pissed and discouraged right now. Rookie mistake.
 
You should be ok, maybe some flavor will be lost, how long did you steep for? As long as you steeped for 20 min or so you should be fine... Don't worry. Did you pitch the yeast at the right temp?
 
Thanks for the input. Kept it at 120-131 for 45 minutes. Everything else went swimmingly. From input on another forum, seems I'll just lose flavor. :-/ sigh...
 
You'll be fine. Target temps are vital in mashing. Steeping is more like making tea - you might not get all the flavor but it'll be fine.

Was your gravity on target? You may have lost a couple of points but I'm sure you'll be just fine.
 
Thanks for the input. Kept it at 120-131 for 45 minutes. Everything else went swimmingly. From input on another forum, seems I'll just lose flavor. :-/ sigh...

You may not even lose flavor. You could even steep them in cold water and get a lot of the flavor out of them. The major reason to steep them in the 152 degree water (at least in my mind) is to get you used to keeping the water in that range for the 30 to 45 minutes because that is the temperature you will need if you partial mash or go all grain where the temperature is critical.

Some kits will have you put the grains in the cold water and then begin heating only to have you pull them out at 170 while another kit may have them stay in until boil is reached.
 
You'll be fine. Target temps are vital in mashing. Steeping is more like making tea - you might not get all the flavor but it'll be fine.

Was your gravity on target? You may have lost a couple of points but I'm sure you'll be just fine.

1.045-1.049 was the range. Mine ended at 1.042. So yea, lost a few points.

You may not even lose flavor. You could even steep them in cold water and get a lot of the flavor out of them. The major reason to steep them in the 152 degree water (at least in my mind) is to get you used to keeping the water in that range for the 30 to 45 minutes because that is the temperature you will need if you partial mash or go all grain where the temperature is critical.

Some kits will have you put the grains in the cold water and then begin heating only to have you pull them out at 170 while another kit may have them stay in until boil is reached.

Knew temperature range in all grain is super important, but didn't realize the extract kits were "possibly" training new brewers to pay attention to temp ranges. Thanks for the input!
 

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