A couple of questions I have been trying to ferment this at around 58 degrees with a swamp cooler and ice bottles. I dosed off one night without changing the bottles and over night it shot up to 68 (major blowout). This was on day 3 of fermentation. Other than that spike I’ve kept it at 54-60 for 10 days. will that one spike hurt me. I’ve never used this yeast before, I still have a full krausen and some bubbling after 10 days. How long can it go, and will the krausen ever fall?
If the spike was in 3-th day you should be O.K. because all yeast growth had already occurred.
Now you are in 10-th day you could raise the temp to 65F just to finish it off.
You are going to have nice clean beer.
If you can cold condition it for at least two weeks.
Don’t rely on krausen and bubbling to determine if your beer is done. Use your hydrometer. Some lower floccing strains can leave a head of krausen for several days after fermentation is finished and bubbling airlocks can happen for weeks after fermentation is finished.
What is your suggestion for cold conditioning from here? Should I rack to secondary and chill to 50 for a couple weeks?
Thanks for your help
When you are sure the fermentation is finished I would lager it at least 38 degrees. 50 is a bit too warm and you won;t get the full benefit of cold conditiioning. I prefer to lager in kegs under Co2 pressure. But you can lager in the primary for a couple of weeks. For an oktoberfest I would recomend lagering for at least 4 weeks if possible. Not sure I would lager for 4 weeks in the primary