First AG/Jimbo's Bourbon

[CR33G3R]

After figuring out that I wanted to try an AG it was just a question of which one. There are many great recipes here on the forum. I decided to give Jimbo's a go.
There was no cooking corn for hours and no need for special enzymes.
So Friday night I started with the corn soak from the recipe. Since my SS BOP was not quite big enough for the full amount of water I held back the additional water or backset portion of the recipe till the next morn. I also did my mashing in a cooler.
The next morning when I got my cooler out the temp had dropped down to about 142 a little less than Jimbo's recommended mashing temp but o worries I had held back some water so I heated that up to a boil and added that to the corn and that was enough to get me up to the temp required. I would have liked to see it a few degrees warmer (think strike temp) but none the less it was what it was.
So in goes the malt, cover the lid wrap it up and let it sit for a bit before checking on it and giving a stir.
When I checked on it for the first stir the temp was back down to 143. The recipe says hold at 146 till conversion then cool. Now I know this is only 3 degrees but it was only 30 min in.
Time to get out the big alumn. pot and propane. So now it's off to clean the pot and get it preheated.
After getting it in the pot and heated up to where I thought it should be I covered it up and let it sit. Except for the part where my wife needed me to help her in the yard and I let the temp creep up to 153. Well crap I couldn't remember if this temp was too high for the malt. I killed the heat stirred and covered. When it got back down to 146 I added just a bit more 6 row just in case.
So long story short it appears to be bubbling away nicely in the fermenter. The mash did pass the iodine test but I can not report on a SG. I knocked over my test cylinder. I tasted sweet for what that's worth. I figured it was good enough. I'm making whiskey here not parts for the space shuttle.
I didn't deviate from the recipe except for the addition of lemon juice and I scaled the recipe by 1/3
I'm sure next time will go smother...
Thanks for reading my little adventure.