I'm one week into fermentation on a pair of Munich Helles'. Pitched at 48, with temp set at 50. 4 days in I noticed a slight slow down in airlock activity so I started a slow walk up I in temp. They are at 54º now. I'll take a gravity reading next weekend and if im at about 75% of the way there I will start walking up to D rest. When they are all done im going to do a one time temp drop (cold crash) to 33º. Hold that for a couple weeks then keg. They'll get carbed and sit at 35º for a couple months. Tap them around garden tilling time.
Cold crashing... I used to do this routinely with every beer and was convinced it was great until a podcaster mentioned that he had read some study... so I quit. Frankly I found no increase in quality by slowly reducing the temp. Then I heard the same podcaster talking about how to make sour beer and it was pretty clear that he didnt really know what he was talking about. Admitted it, but gave an answer anyway... it kind of calls into question the previous cold crashing "study".