Is Anyone Else Confused by This "Steep" Mix?

[Wingy]

I made up an APA yesterday, and thinking back on the recipe the "steep" didn't make much sense. Specialty grains were as follows:

1.0 lb Pale malt
0.5 lb Honey malt
0.5 lb Aroma malt (used Cara-Aroma...)
0.5 lb Crystal 60L

The recipe recommended steeping at 170 deg F for 30 minutes. Did adding the pale malt do anything? Why was 170 recommended? I assumed that this was a partial mash in disguise so I brought the temp down to 150-160 and "sparged" with 170 degree water over the grain bags. Temperature was only 150-160 for 30 min.

I added 6.6 lb of light LME so I'm not too worried about not having enough sugars to ferment, but thinking back am confused about the recommended grain mix/temps (seems a bit dark for a "pale" ale). Thanks for the advice (and sorry about being a paranoid n00b...)!

 

[Corner_House]

good thing for keeping it at 150-160. at 170+ tannins start to develop into the wort causing a bad taste. but about the color, i wouldn't be too worried about it.

 

[Boleslaus]

Yea everything looks in line for a pale ale including the color (around 9 srm). I'm interested to see how the malt flavor is when this is done fermenting.

 

[Wingy]

Thanks, I'll just RDWHAHB and let y'all know how it turns out.