Did I ruin my beer?

Brewing a saison and it's my first foray into high temperature fermentation. Started at an ambient 68 for 12 hours, then ramped up to an ambient 72 for 24. The fermentation seemed to be going really well...12 more hours at 75 and airlock was bubbling healthily.

Anyhow, I decided to proceed to 80, which I tried to do with a space heater...I accidentally got the ambient temperature to 83 and then started to second guess myself....I stuck in a thermometer through the airlock hole and it was 88 degrees in the primary!!!! Is my beer ruined? I'm guessing there will be a lot of fusels...

What is the best thing to do at this point? I probably need 3 or 4 more days before I rack to secondary. Do I lower the temperature back to 75-80 or do I stick with my guns and just deal with the fusels?

Its saison yeast, you are just now getting it happy. Its lazy and doesn't like to get moving until its in the mid/high 80s. Crank it down a little bit but keep it warm.

I ferment my saisons starting at seventy five and eventually reaching 95 after about ten days. Saisons like it hot

Good to know. I'm using WLP568 which is listed as 70-80 degrees, but I'll have to trust how hot it's getting...

There was an intereview with Peter of Odonata Beer Co. on Basic Brewing Radio recently. He thinks that saison yeast is a mutated red wine yeast, and red wines get fermented at 80-85° F degrees. He said his brother (a winemaker) will keep vats of wine in the sun to keep the temperature up.

In short, I think you're fine.

You're golden... as is bring posted, those temps aren't bad for Saisons. I wouldn't let it drift to 100 or anything but I certainly wouldn't loose any sleep over it being in the high 80's at all.