Some questions about bottle conditioning

My first batch was quite good at about two weeks of bottle conditioning (room temperature). It was clear, tasty and just a slight bit ashy which I enjoyed. It was the one from Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats' I figured it would be a good summertime ale. Well I decided I would be real patient and try more time. The third week it still tasted good, but not quite as good, by the fourth week it seemed to lose all it's complexity and it got just a slight bit harsh.
Did I over-condition or do you think that the temperature spike did something (one day the temp in the brew closet went up to about 76-77 then right back down to 70 at night.) And I was wondering, isn't true that most beers like to be conditioned at their fermentation temperature or would ales benefit from some time at lager temps too?

Probably the temperature spike. Once a beer is carbonated, it really should be kept cool.

What do you mean by harsh?

I have had beers months (even years old) stay at somewhat high temperatures (maybe near 80) and have not noticed any change in flavor (it was a Red Ale BTW). Actually, the last bottle is in the fridge now...

The temp spike was nada. The length of conditioning to reach a beer's peak of flavor will vary from beer to beer. The rule of thumb is that the higher gravity beers will need longer, sometimes months to years for barleywines and such, to as little as a week for low gravity beers.

However, this is just a rule of thumb and has many variables. Type of hops is a major variable. Temperature of conditioning is the main thing to track. The only way to know for sure is to test and once you find a particular beer's peak of flavor, note down the time it took and the temperature it conditioned at and use that as a guide for future beers of that recipe.

Once the peak has been reached, refrigeration will slow the process of conditioning down.

Actually now that I think about it, it's probably not harsh at all. It is more likely that since all the other flavors have pretty much gone away then the bite is all that is left.
This thread leads me to another question, though. If you decide that a beer gets better with more time can you take the rest back out of the fridge and condition it more?