Question re: Denatured Enzymes & Gravity

[LogicBomb]

I did my 4th ever all-grain batch yesterday.

My thermometer was being terribly slow (have a speedy CDN one in the mail now...) and I jumped the gun reading what I thought was the right strike temp. thought it was 166ish, was probably around 180.

I mashed in, stirred thoroughly, shut the lid, waited 3-5 minutes, took a temp reading and had my "oh ****" moment as it read 160+. Didn't even let it settle on a final temp I just started stirring like mad and dropped the temp down to 155. And of course then I was freaking out over denaturing all my enzymes and ending up with a big pot of starch instead of sugar.

My pre-boil and post-boil gravities were very close though:

Estimated Pre-boil: 1.033
Actual Pre-boil: 1.036

Estimated Post-boil: 1.040
Actual Post-boil: 1.044

If I had denatured the enzymes, would my gravity readings been much further off? Should I RDWHAHB or is this likely a screwed batch?

 

[ajdelange]

If it tastes sweet you got some sugar. If it passes or nearly passes the iodine test you got most of it converted.

 

[catdaddy66]

This EXACT thing just happened to me! I got the water to 170 and mixed the grain bill in, placed the floating thermometer in and covered... 5-10 min later the mash temp is 160!!

I uncovered and stirred vigorously but was only down slightly. Then I got a 1/2 gal of cold h2o and that brought it down to 150. Whew! Don't anticipate much of a problem as the grain mashed at 160 a Max of 10 minutes. Any worries I have won't change the outcome so, mash on!

Also, do I need to add the ten minutes at 160* to my mash time? Thanks


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