steep temp was too high...is the batch doomed?

[bperlmu]

so i just finished brewing my spiced holiday dubbel (extract) and i made an embarassingly amature mistake while steeping. i stupidly left the kettle unattended for about 25 minutes after i added my specialty grains (at 150 degrees). when i came back, the temperature in the kettle was close to 200 degrees.... i removed the grains as soon as i notices this. ive never made this mistake before and im worried about excessive tannins that may have resulted from my mistake. did i ruin the batch or am i just being paranoid? has anyone else had a similar experience? what was the outcome?
i was quite excited about this recipe and im really hoping i didnt screw up my xmas beer.
thanks for your input

 

[Catfish]

Did you taste it? If it tasted over-poweringly like tannin then yes, you ruinned it. If there was no bad flavor or the tannins were minor, then it may be okay. Ferment it and see how it ends up.

 

[Rich the Brewer]

I had a batch where I lost about a third of my steeping grains through a small hole in the bag. I boiled them for an hour, and poured most of them into my fermenter.

After fermentation and a couple weeks in the bottle, the astringency was pretty bad, but faded with time. I'd bottle it, at this point all you have to waste is a few bottle caps and 5 ounces of sugar.

 

[bperlmu]

Did you taste it? If it tasted over-poweringly like tannin then yes, you ruinned it. If there was no bad flavor or the tannins were minor, then it may be okay. Ferment it and see how it ends up.

i tasted just the steeping water with boiling hops (hallertauer) about 20 minutes into boil (no DME yet) and it was VERY bitter. but i tasted it when before pitching yeast and the bitterness was hardly perceptable, it actually tasted quite good...the wort was extremely sweet due to the unfermented candi sugar which may have been covering the bitterness up.... but we'll just have to wait and see. if this doesn't come out, ill just have to make the oatmeal stout i just bottled my xmas beer

 

[gallagherman]

Is it the temp or the time that releases tannins? Because I followed a recipe today that called for steeping specialty grains for 60 min instead of the normal 30 min, however this was at 50d. I thought this was kinda long and compromised with 60d for 45 min.

 

[Bulls Beers]

On my first batch i steeped the grains to a boil. I read the directions wrong and it tasted pretty bitter. When i tasted it 2 weeks after bottle, it still tasted bitter but drinkable. It smelled great and the intial taste was good and then a few seconds later it was like a punch in the face bitter. A few weeks after that it did mellow and i finshed the batch.. It will mellow with time..

 

[Catfish]

The problem is not the temp or the length it is actually a combination of temp and pH. If you steep for too short of a time you only get the color, no flavor. If you steep for too long of a time you have wasted time; 15 minutes extra is no problem for hte beer. You want the water hot enough to melt the sugars in the grain but not to start disolving the husk material. Lower temp, longer time makes sense.

If you boil a whole bunch of grain and extract a bunch of tannins your beer will NOT be bitter. Too many hops and you have bitter, high alcohol can also be bitter, but tannins are mouth-puckering tanniny. Think of over steeped tea. It is a drying, closing, choking, puckering sensation. No bitterness, though. The biterness is all in the hops, your bitterness decreases during fermentation and with time, so the sweet wort will be both very sweet and very bitter.
If you tasted your wort and it is bitter, you are good to go. If it is a bit tanniny, you are good to go. If it is terrible and undrinkable because it is too bitter, you are good to go but it may need some age. If it is terrible and undrinkable with the tanniny and mouth puckering flavor you are still okay, but it may need a lot of age.