Hex Nut Brown Ale w/ Starter - process critique?

[Veronis]

I brewed a Midwest Hex Nut Brown Ale last night and wanted to see if anyone had any critiques on what I did/didn't do. I also made my first starter for this one.

I've attached images in case it helps; couple questions in bold.

Recipe: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/media/downloads/42/Hex Nut Brown Ale Instructions.pdf

Starter:
- White Labs WLP001 Cali Ale Yeast
- 1.1 liters, 110 grams DME, pinch of yeast nutrient, pitched when cooled to 70ish
- Stir plate for 48 hours, fridge for 48 hours, then decanted on brew day

Brew (15 gallon brew pot):
1. Steeped grains at 150-160 in 2.5 gallons of water for ~30 minutes. Removed grain bag.
2. Added 4 gallons of water (for a 6.5g full boil), which dropped the temp back to 80ish, and brought that to a boil. Does it matter that I added cold water vs. hot water?
3. Liquid Malt Extract and Willamette hops as directed by recipe above.
4. Cooled to just under 80. Should I have cooled closer to 65-70?
5. Strained into fermenter, sealed and shook it for a minute or so (providing ~8ppm oxygen based on Wyeast's studies).
6. Swirled starter flask and pitched. Blowoff tube'd fermenter.

Temp-corrected OG was 1.047, batch size 5.25g

Temps (should I aim for lower temps?):
1. Placed in basement, ambient temps 63-66 (the 68 in the pic is from moving it).
2. Initial bottle temp was 79; yeast seems to have instantly multiplied. 30 minutes after pitching the slurry looked bigger than I expected it to be.
3. Two hours later bottle temp was down to 74, and the blowoff tube was starting to bubble slowly...2 or 3 per minute.
3. This morning the temp read 71/72 on the bottle and 64 degrees ambient. High krausen and lots of activity going on. Bubble every 1-3 seconds.

Pic 1 is just before decanting, pic 2 is 2 hours after pitching, pic 3 is this morning.

 

[BlackGoat]

yeah, your temps are a bit too high. Its best to get them under 70, do a search on here for a swamp cooler and see if you can rig one up. This is mostly important in the first 2-3 days of fermentation when certain off-flavors can be produced from the warm fermentation. Everything else looks good!

Btw, i doubt you were seeing the yeast instantly multiplying within 30 minutes, what you were probably seeing was proteins fall out of suspension as the wort began to settle. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between some trub elements and the yeast.

 

[Veronis]

Btw, i doubt you were seeing the yeast instantly multiplying within 30 minutes, what you were probably seeing was proteins fall out of suspension as the wort began to settle. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between some trub elements and the yeast.

Oh okay, that makes a lot more sense. I read in Palmer's book that the first hours are used to multiply/bud, but I didn't recall it mentioning how fast or slow it happened.

Thanks!