I'm brewing a german alt beer. I'm using WLP029. I started the fermenting at about 68 degrees, did a yeast starter and within about 6 hours the temp went all the way to 80 degrees. The temp in the room is 68. I dont have an extra fridge to control the temp just yet but I put a fan on it and the temp seems to be dropping slowly. It's been about 18 hours and it has dropped to 75 degrees. Will the temp spike do any damage? or am I just overly worried?
Calm down. From my limited homebrewing experience what you're seeing are very happy yeast cells waking up. Yay!!! P.S. Wrong forum.
It's possible you could get excessive esters or other issues. At minimum you'll probably want to let it sit on the yeast cakes a little extra time after fermentation to aid clean up.
Not sure if the spike for that amount of time will cause off flavors, but if you throw a wet shirt/towel around the fermentor in addition to the fan it will help reduce temps more than just the fan alone. Google swamp cooler for more info.
