First disappointing AG brew

[xenocide]

I've been through about 4 all grain brew sessions, all of which turned out well. I've been hitting about 70~75% efficiency which I thought was okay for batch sparging with my 48 qt cooler SS braid MLT conversion. I just brewed this Mojave red on new years eve.
I plugged it into beersmith and converted it for 70% efficiency. I can post the specific grain bill and such later when I get the printouts. The wort tasted good at first, but had a very bitter acidic finish and was far darker than anticipated. This taste was present pre and post boil. I did miss my temp high by a bit (~163 as opposed to 152). I opened the cooler lid and got it down to 155 by about 15 minutes into mashing. I do remember beersmith had me sparge with ~1 gallon the first time and ~3.3 gallons for the second sparge. I hit these volumes and temps right on. I wouldn't think that such little time at the higher temp was enough to extract the dreaded tannins, is that what happened and what can I do to prevent it?

I finished the batch, aerated, pitched, and it's now bubbling away. I'll be bottling it either way, but is there anything I can do to help this? Do you think this acidity was from missing the mash temp or did I screw something else up?

tl;dr: I missed my mash temp by about 10 degrees high, wort tastes really bitter and acidic, am I freaking out over nothing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[samc]

Yes, freaking out before you have a carbed and aged beer is not helping you any. Even if you screwed it up you need to learn things from it, which is best done when you sit back calmly and think it through.

I'd think 15 minutes at a too high a temperature however is a problem. The modern highly modified grain can be near finished in its conversion by 15 minutes. I leave the specifics of the ill effects to someone with a scientific explanation for you.

You need to dial in your strike temps. Even if you were too hot you should have let the water sit in the cooler until the right strike temp. You could also toss in ice cubes in an emergency to bring the temps down fast.

Maybe you will get lucky and the beer will age out and be ok.

 

[Warped04]

I'm with samc. I wouldn't freak out. Your beer maybe less than ideal. There's only one way to find out and unfortunately it's a waiting game. But as samc said. Learn from your mistakes and it will make you a better brewer.

We've all made bad batches of beer. It's just one of those ones we don't give out to our friends, and we quietly drink them in the corner. With each sip comes memories of how we screwed it up and how we won't do it again. Ohh...sorry. Bad tangent.

 

[mychalg9]

I had a similar experience on my first AG beer. I narrowed it down to either infection due to slow cooling or water profile. My wort tasted fine until 2 weeks into fermentation though

 

[xenocide]

We've all made bad batches of beer. It's just one of those ones we don't give out to our friends, and we quietly drink them in the corner. With each sip comes memories of how we screwed it up and how we won't do it again. Ohh...sorry. Bad tangent.

Hehe, I like it
Thanks for the reassurance. I had a feeling I would just have to wait till after bottling and aging, but I've seen magic here before

Thanks!

 

[coderbond]

I for one can tell you....

Even people who have brewed more than a dozen batches make strike temp mistakes. I have a friend who makes beer with me and today he insisted on raising the strike temperature 10 degrees because it was cold outside.

I imagine the beer will finish with a harsh start to its flavor profile. But he'll drink it and he'll learn. Temp is the most important piece of the puzzle. Here is where you have a leg up on others, you know what you did wrong!

 

[user 19629]

.......................I do remember beersmith had me sparge with ~1 gallon the first time and ~3.3 gallons for the second sparge. ...............................

That doesn't seem right, you want to try and keep the batch sparge additions relatively equal. I could be wrong about this but I don't think this has any bearing on the astringency you describe but it might help with your efficiency.
I would have added the 1 gallon and the 3.3 gallons to get the right volume and then split that equally.

 

[nutty_gnome]

I've made the mojave red. It is a complex beer and the acidic taste will likely will settle down in time. Its a good beer. put it somewhere dark and forget about it for a month or two.

 

[xenocide]

That doesn't seem right, you want to try and keep the batch sparge additions relatively equal. I could be wrong about this but I don't think this has any bearing on the astringency you describe but it might help with your efficiency.
I would have added the 1 gallon and the 3.3 gallons to get the right volume and then split that equally.

That's what I was thinking...
I couldn't think of a good reason beersmith wanted me to sparge with 1 gallon first. I figured it was smarter than I was though, so I went with it. I'm not sure if it'll end up making a difference, but I think I'm going to start sparging with equal volumes.
It seems to have passed high krausen, I'll take a sample tomorrow.