Will warm first 24 hours cause off flavours?

[ADL]

I was making a lager yesterday and pitched my yeast (s-23) into around room temperature (24C) wort but was afraid of stalling or shocking the yeast by instantly dropping the temp. Overnight I put it in the coldest part of my basement which is still around 18C (64F) which is a bit high for a lager.

I just remembered about it and checked up on it and I've never seen a fermentation that looks quite like this one. Its constantly churning and swirling like its alive, quite fast actually. It looks like there's a storm going on inside. Is this because of the higher than normal temps for a lager strain? Will these temps cause off flavours even if only for the first 24 hours? I wouldn't be surprised if it finished the majority of the fermentation in a day or two by the looks of it

I've since moved it into the garage in hopes of quickly cooling it to reduce off flavours, my garage sits around 11C (51F)

 

[Stix]

Alot of books recommend if its your first lager to wait to cool it down until fermentation starts. Especially if you are under pitching/ not using a starter. You need around 240 billion to cold start a lager at 5 gallons. From what I have read it should be fine but others more knowledgeable can correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Yooper]

You'll produce more esters and sulfur at a higher temperature, as well as more diacetyl. You may not have the super "clean" lager flavor in the end at such a high temperature.

 

[klnosaj]

Lord knows I'm no lager expert buy the instructions I received were to pitch at room temp and then move it once it starts going. This advice i think is in part because most people underpitch yeast, especially for lagers, and room temp helps the yeast get going. I had a nearly 72 hour lag for a lager recently and that was keeping it at room temp. Once ferment finally got going I moved it and so far there's nothing to make me think it's not going to be ok (other than fact I knocked the air lock off of it and didn't notice for what I hope is not longer than about 15 minutes but could be as long as a couple of hours....and it's in my nasty detached dirt-floor garage. Yikes).