Boiled the grains

In the brewing directions I use every time I brew, it says in bold print Do Not Boil the Grains! during the steeping step.

I accidentally let the grains boil! For at least a couple of minutes!

I can't find anywhere what actually happens if I boil the grains, just that I'm not supposed to do it. Why? Can I just keep going and everything will turn out ok?

I wouldn't. I would stop, purchase new grains and start over.

Boiling will release excess tannins from the grains which will give the finished beer an astringent aftertaste.

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Heating the grains above 170F can increase the astringency in your beer. Basically, causing a bitter off flavor. I wouldn't say that boiling the grains for a few minutes is going to ruin your beer. You might as well continue on as planned. It just might not taste exactly how you expected.

Thanks! I'm going to keep pushing forward, out of limited time and stubbornness.
Also it seems that posting this brings up the similar threads linked below, which I didn't find before through skimming. hm

I accidentally boiled my grains for a chocolate coffee stout and it turned out to be one of the best beers I've made.

I think it would depend on WHEN you boiled the grains. If you dropped your grains and they were at a "normal" temp for 60 minutes and then you boiled them by accident, you are basically just pulling a ton of tannins out of the grain and you're going to get a ton of bitter like someone mentioned.

If you added your grains and boiled them within five minutes, you are still pulling all of the above-mentioned tannins but you're not going to pull any sugars out of those grains. Once you get over about 161-162, you're wiping out your enzymes and you won't get any conversion to sugar... and you'll miss your target OG by perhaps a little (if you're recipe is mostly dried extract) to a TON if the grain makes up the bulk of your recipe.

BlueSunshine said:

I accidentally boiled my grains for a chocolate coffee stout and it turned out to be one of the best beers I've made.

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I boiled a pound of coffee grounds, a pound of flaked barley and a half pound of roasted barley in an extract coffee stout batch once.

Came out great! Nice and bitter!

That being said, I think that boiling the grains could be bad for a lighter colored beer.