Top off water too warm?

I brewed a Brewers Best Oatmeal Stout extract kit on Tuesday, cooled the wort, dumped into my primary and then topped it off to bring it to the 5 gallon mark. My primary has a little temperature sticker on it, and my last batch of beer hung around 66 degrees after a few weeks of sitting in the closet. This time, i think i used too hot of top off water, as the sticker is showing that it's 77-80 degrees. My house is on the cooler side this time of year, so i'm sure it'll come down to the 66-70 range very soon, but what ramifications can hot top off water have?

I put the airlock in on tuesday night, and had a decent stream of bubbles yesterday morning, but by the time i came home from work yesterday, the bubbles have stopped. I plan on waiting 3 weeks and checking the FG for a few days in a row, but i'm just curious what hot water can do to the fermentation.

Also, when steeping the grains, the water may have hit 175-180 for a couple of seconds before i removed it from heat. Do a couple of degrees really make a big difference?

As long as you mixed the cooler wort with the warmer top off water well you shouldn't have a problem. I would have waited for the temp to come down a bit before pitching but it won't be a problem in the end. The reason for the short duration of airlock activity was probably due to the warmer temp during ferment (fermented quicker) but once again......RDWHAHB.

I also wouldn't worry about the steeping temp for this batch. Probably got more unfermentables but for steeping all you are really looking for is color and a little body from the grains.

I only have three batches in and have learned something new from each one. As long as you are learning and refining your process life is good.

Jason

77-80 isn't a great pitching or fermentation temp - you may get some wild flavors. I used to say, "I don't care about my pitching temp - the wort will cool off eventually" but I now see this is not the right attitude. It is much better to pitch below your target ferm temp and then let the yeasts' activity raise the temp.

Because of the higher temp, it's no surprise that the beer fermented pretty quickly.