An American strong ale recipe I have calls for a mash temperature of 150F - which seems a bit low to me. OG: 1.104 and FG: 1.024.
When you’re doing a A.S.A. what mash temp do you prefer? Does 150F seem out of line?
With a beer that big they’re probably going for a lower mash temp to help the beer ferment out better. At 1024 your still going to have some sweetness in the beer.
As already pointed out, this is a big beer and there will be no problem with obtaining residual sweetness and body from that wort. Getting it to ferment to an adequate degree is a much more important consideration.
I would probably include a beta rest around 145 to 146F and then might boost the temp to 150 to 152F, but just mashing at the beta rest temperature could be OK for a big beer like this. Of course, a big pitching of yeast is important too.
The bigger the beer, the lower the mash temp needs to be IMHO.
That said, I mash about 80% of my beers between 148-150 F regardless of strength. It just makes better beer in general IMHO.
