No longer able to maintain consistent temperature

[Harrydan]

I have a dos equis clone lager going and have kept the temp around 45-50 consistently during primary fermentation. I had a long lag time starting off (4 days) and now it's been about 15 days since then and I've still got airlock activity and a good krausen layer on top. The recipe says to rack to secondary after ten days but since it was still actively (albeit slowly) fermenting I decided to RDWHAHB. The problem is that now, due to technical difficulties, I cannot maintain lagering temps or drop the temp after racking to the secondary (whenever i do). My question I guess is just a preference one. Should I embrace the new temps and let the yeast adjust and do their stuff, or should I bottle after the krausen drops and put em' in the fridge for a month or two?? Any and all insight would help.

 

[helibrewer]

Let the yeast do their thing, your situation is what it is. The dangers from off flavors are less late in fermentation and you probably need a diacetyl rest anyway. Lager as cold as you are able to

 

[Dougan]

I would be doing a D-rest at this point anyway, so you are in perfect shape.

Sucks that you can't lager the beer, but that won't make it undrinkable.

 

[Harrydan]

Thanks guys... pulled it out for a D-rest. Good news: fixed the old keg-o-rater and can lager the beer. Concerning /potentially bad news: The D-Rest ain't resting... it started fermenting like crazy. I've got a bubble in the air lock just about 1 per second and lots of churning. I probably should have done a hydro reading before pulling it up to room temp but when the fridge broke it was heading that way anyway. so... where to go from here? advice??

 

[Dougan]

It may or may not be a problem that it's fermenting so vigorously. But I don't think you are screwed for certain, and I think trying to chill it down again will just put more stress on the yeast (frequent temp changes can give more off-flavors than just fermenting it warm will).