I am not at home right now, so I can't publish the stats on my Schwarzbier, but mine turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. It made it to the second round at the SS Pro-Am, so I guess I am not alone in thinking that it "doesn't suck". I have it on tap now in my office, but I am not sure if it will last until the June meeting...I doubt it.

Anyway, I wanted to chime in on the Diacetyl rest thing. I never do one anymore. As I am sure that most of you know, I do almost exclusively Lagers. I tried doing a D-rest in the beginning, along with the myth of starting your beer warm and then cooling it once the fermentation starts. The secret is...pitch really big and let the beer finish. If you are in a hurry, you may have to do a Diacetyl rest like the Big-3 have to because the have to maintain serious throughput...but I am not pushing commercial beer through my system. As long as you let it go on the big starter, and wait for three weeks or so in the primary, the yeast will take care of itself. I also wait until I have the better part of a minute in between bubbles from my 3-piece airlock before I consider racking.

I am not sure if this helps or hinders the conversation, but since we were on the subject, I thought that I would chime in.

Jonathan

Note - Since I am sitting in a hospital right this second, I am feeling mortal, so I must say "enjoy every beer like it was your last!!!" There is no excuse for drinking crap-beer!!!