How bad did I mess up???

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LymeKiln

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Mar 22, 2015
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Location
Cedar Grove
This weekend I made a recipe: Thomas Jefferson's Plug Nickel from AHA website.
Grist:
9 lbs Rahr 2 row Pale malt
2 lbs Flaked Maize (substitute for Grits)
1 lb Belgian Biscuit

I brought my strike water up to 185°F and poured into my 5 gal Igloo MLT after preheating to about 160°F.
I then stirred in my grains and watched my temp plummet to 163°F. Stirred for about 15 minutes to make sure the maize wasn't clumping (I didn't blend it with the rest of my grist up until this point) Then I capped the MLT and let it rest for an hour stirring every 10 minutes. When I capped the internal temp was 158°F.
This is a bit on the high side for mashing. Up until this point I had great success at 154°F.
My gravity at pitching was 1.069, I have no idea what to expect beyond what the Brewer's Friend app is telling me and that's saying around 1.058. I used the BrewR app too and that calculated 1.065.
My major issue isn't so much the gravity, but because the temp was 5°F over typical range did I just dump a bunch of unfermentable sugar into my beer?
 
185 is a bit high to strike in with, but I strike in high all the time and then use ice to cool quickly down to my mash temp, if necessary.

I wouldn't worry too much about mashing a bit high. You won't get the same attenutation as mashing low, but you will still make beer. And unfermentable sugars from mashing high are not as sweet tasting as the simple sugars that are fermentable, so you will probably get more body then sweet from mashing high. At least that's what I think I read.
 
It's trash, dump it.











But really, no one can tell you, you'll just have to wait and see.
 
Well, I just transferred it to secondary. I took measurements, the gravity is at 1.017. I tasted it and it needs to age a bit but otherwise I'd say I'm on the right track. I guess it was just a little angst ridden for no reason.
 
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