German Ale Yeast?

Relative newcomer here. (five brews) I've got Cheesefoods CCA in primary. I read Wyeast's info on the 1007 German Ale yeast and decided that the primary temp should be a little lower than your normal ale. (Reccomended 55-68 F) I put the primary in a tub of water in the back of my garage. Maintained a relatively steady 60-62 F. After 12 days, I brought it in the house to bring the temp up for a diacetyl rest. Now it's up to 68-70 F. Well, the fermentation has taken off again. I'm getting major pharting out of the blowoff and obvious turbulence out of the yeast cake. Any guesses as to how long I'll have to leave it at this temp before I can rack to secondary? I have to leave for a trip in a few days and will be gone for a week. I kinda hate to leave the primary sitting on the trub/yeast for 3 weeks plus. I also want to harvest the yeast for an Alaska Amber clone.
Thoughts?

i used the 1007 for an altbier and then racked a oktoberfest ale ontop of it, both took a while to ferment, the altbier was a little less than three weeks before it was done bubbling (i dont take hydrometer readings very often so i wait till the bubbles are done). The next oktoberfest, even racked on a cake took about two weeks, i think ferm temps were around 65-68 for both. I dont know if this is normal or not.

Seeing how this thread is over a year old, I don't feel bad about hijacking it. Also I felt that is would be best to keep the information on this strain altogether rather than starting a new topic.

Made a somewhat altered BM "Helles Bells" yesterday. Used Wyeast 1007. Smacked the pack on my way out of LHBS, and pitched about 4-5 hours later. The pack never swelled, (and I beat the fik out of it.) I smelled the pack after I cut it open and noticed an "off" smell. Being as how this was my very first batch with absolutely no screw-ups/mishaps, and impeccable sanitation, I find myself here posting my very first yeast problem.

1. Is there a noticeable odor to this yeast? (I'm talking a definite non-beer smell.)

2. Does it take a while to ramp up? No beer I have made so far has had lag over 12 hours. I popped the top for a quick peek at about the 17 hr mark and there isn't even a hint of krausen. Temp is 55-60.

Any info is always appreciated. Thanks
-Drew

I used it for an Altbier last year, but didn't remember a bad smell. Ibet it has started bubbling by now. I've had over 24 hour lag time if I don't make a starter. Last week I harvested, washed, and pitched yeast from the secondary. It took over 24 hours to start, but once it got going, evrything was fine. Yeah the banana is annoying.

I´ve had experience with one bad smack pack, though it was london ale III and not 1007. I did not swell and there was no fermentation after 48 hours, so I pitched another pack. Unfortunately, when the fermentation started after 1-2 more days some other microbes had already taken hold of my beer. I ended up with 5 gallons of really foul smelling stuff... Totally undrinkable, I believe there was huge amounts of both phenols and acetaldehyde if I am to trust my nose. I have to add that the yeast (both packs) had expired, but only with a few days and the second one swelled good. So I guess you can get the odd smack pack that is f@?*ed. Maybe because of bad temps during transport of storage.

I've used this yeast twice, for wheat beers, fermented at 62F. I did not notice it behaving any differently from other yeasts I have used. That is, no funny smells, long lag times, or extended fermentations. In fact, my experience is that this yeast matures quickly. I was drinking both beers in a month.

One time the smack pack was nearly dead. The starter took 3 days to take off. I stepped that starter up one time before pitching, but otherwise it performed normally.