How bad did I Mess up my mini mash?

I don't think this is too bad. Most conversion happened during that 45 min stretch. It's possible that your enzymes got pretty thoroughly denatured, and that you didn't see any more conversion after that, but I think it is more likely that you mash was not at a uniform temp and you measured a hot spot. Even if you failed to get conversion after that point, because it is a minimash, you are relying on extract to provide s chunk of gravity. Worst case scenario is your beer will finish higher than ideal but you'll probably still like it

 

whats done is done. If your steeping in a bag i would say not too much damage. the bag will tend take a longer time to get surface water into the grains... so internal temps are probably less than the thermometer says. Are the grains a "supplement" to a larger wort? if so, you are probably just steeping for some extra nutrients, color and flavours. i would guess not too much damage done. If, on the other hand this was a full on mash conversion for the bulk of product ..then your dinked.

 

...the high heat will stop starch conversions and you will get less sugar yield... not an issue if its just a supplement. Worse though, at those higher temps you start to leech a lot of tannin's from the grains which is fairly undesirable and will affect the final product.

 

I thought about mentioning tannins, but this really becomes an issue when high temps are combined with high pH. Plus, I suspect your high temp measurement was just a hot spot and not the average temp of your mash

 

I think you'll be just fine. Probably won't taste JUST like Heady, but you're good. No clone will anyway!

 

made the same mistake once when I got my new Edelmettal banjo burner. Ale turned out fine for the most part.

 

The best thing you could do is get yourself a mash tun, and move to all grain. Problem solved!

 

Sounds to me like you mashed in the 155-160 range for 20+ minutes, which is just dandy in terms of starch to sugar conversion. I don't know if you're necessarily trying to get enzymatic activity with steeping grains, or if you're mostly using these for color and flavo(u)r as kirkcreelman suggests. Either way, no harm done at this stage.

The question is whether you extracted enough tannins when you heated it in the 170-195 range to make your beer astringent (mouth puckering, drying). I personally doubt it. I'm guessing that the amount of steeping grains you're using with this kit isn't substantial enough in the grand scheme of your recipe to contribute so many tannins that your beer has major astringency. That said, when your batch is done, taste it with an open mind. If you find it to be excessively dry and mouth puckering, this might be the cause. Learn from your mistake and adjust your process next time.

Most importantly, DO NOT THROW THE BATCH OUT! Worst case scenario it's a great learning experience.

 

I'd guess the wort was at appropriate mash temps maybe long enough (20+ minutes in this case) for pretty much full conversion from starches to sugars and unfermentable dextrins. But what probably suffered was fermentability, i.e. the proportion of unfermentables to fermentables is probably higher than it would have been if the temp hadn't run away.