All grain homebrewing temperature question. Too high?

Question

I am trying my first all grain recipe today. I was watching the temperature on the side of the brewpot, and it wasn't moving so I checked it with a hand held digital and it said my mash was at 174°F for roughly 5 minutes. I added cold water to bring it down to 168°, and some more to get to 155°. I am at about 150-155 right now and have about 30 minutes to go until I lauter.

Did I kill the enzymes? Should I even continue?

Will it be OK if I do continue?

Answer 1

You should now sparge the grains.

The enzymes are denatured at temperatures above the low 160F. when held for 5 minutes or longer. You had very high temps. above this. By adding water it changes nothing you can not bring them back.

In a normal mash the "thickness" has an effect on enzamatic activity as well.

You may have pulled tannis from the barley husks rendering your beer astringent. You would have also pulled other off-flavor causesing chenicals from the husks. But you will know this later. The husks are more open to leaching during the sparge to to increeased temperature treatment.

My advise is to continue through and ferment your wort. There is always a lesson to be learned.

Answer 2

Sounds like your gonna get the ****,s if you drink it

Answer 3

Continue?

Not sure but my brother is a brewer and he said it is over.

Answer 4

At that temperature, you killed the enzymes.  Your mash never converted from starch to sugar.  You may have also released the tannins into the mash, leaving it very astringent.

Toss it out and start again.

Answer 5

The enzymes don't die. The activate and deactivate depending on the temperature. You'll probably come out pretty well from this experience.

Answer 6

I know  the feeling.  Keep going with your brew, though- even it turns out poorly, you have gained experience and a baseline against which to measure future batches.  I've had my wort up pretty high, too, and it didn't affect the result too much.  The worst thing you can do is boil it; 10-20 degree swing like yours won't affect it nearly as much.  

Most importantly- make sure everything is sanitized (bottles, tubes, etc).  That will usually have an even bigger impact on the taste of the beer.

Answer 7

I do partial mashes cycling between 150 & 170°F. You got a little over but that shouldn't hurt any. The only thing I wonder about is your OG. Is that within the appropriate range for the style? If not, you may want to work in a bit of extract to bring it up.