Poll: What's your personal hottest mash temperature? Results?

I recently brewed a oatmeal stout and mashed at 159. OG: 1.055, FG: 1.020. Yeast was WLP002. The beer is still carbonating in the keg so results aren't in yet. What's you hottest mash temperature? What was the resulting beer like?

I have hit 160 myself and have seen as high as 162 in a commercial environment, although that was not encouraged! We were triple batching into a ferm so the results of the 162 mashes are difficult to attest to (you might have temps of 148, 155 and 162 for instance). The 160s I have personally done have been about the same as 158, which is my personal target for most beers. I like my beers to be malty for the most part, but I will often mash that high with non malt forward beers as well and use a little less malt (similar profile, slightly more sessionable)

I've done about 5 beers in a row at 158-160. Looking for something super sweet.

Calichusetts said:

I've done about 5 beers in a row at 158-160. Looking for something super sweet.

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High saccharification temp does not necessarily mean more sweetness.

For instance, Lagunitas IPA is mashed at 160F and it's not too sweet.

By mashing high, you leave long chain sugars in the wort that are not metabolized by yeast and they contribute to the body/mouthfeel of beer but not necessarily sweetness.

My personal "high" is 158F (with a digital/calibrated thermometer) and the beer finished at 1.014 (from 1.081).

Andrikos said:

High saccharification temp does not necessarily mean more sweetness.

For instance, Lagunitas IPA is mashed at 160F and it's not too sweet.

By mashing high, you leave long chain sugars in the wort that are not metabolized by yeast and they contribute to the body/mouthfeel of beer but not necessarily sweetness.

My personal "high" is 158F (with a digital/calibrated thermometer) and the beer finished at 1.014 (from 1.081).

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Agreed...should have clarified...I was looking for the opposite of a thin/dry beer so I just went to the other extreme...full and sweet (caramel malts, etc)

...I was surprised by how not sweet my outmeal stout turned out. Mashed at 159, FG of 1.020, but it's not all that sweet. Rich, velvety texture seems to be coming through as it carbonates, but not a worty/underattenuated sweetness.

Done several step mashes where the last temperature rest (before mashout) was 160.

I did a brett saison and mashed at 160. I was trying to leave some sugar for the brett and it worked out well.

I do 158 every once in a while (usually on session beers to keep the body up). I've done 160 once. I've never gone higher (unless we're including mashout)

I've done 158 a number of times, I make a goodly number of session beers though and find the higher temp mash makes for a fuller body.

I did a scotch ale this past weekend using east Coast yeast Scottish heavy yeast. Fortunately when I got it I was able to meet the guy who runs ECY. He told me that the yeast does great under a highly dextrinous wort. This is why I went so high. I was shooting for 158, but came out at 160. I figured I would let it set there. OG was 1.058 with a target of 1.060. I'll post when it is complete!