Moved the Lager to Keg
Finally did it - but had to bottle a couple dozen stubbies as only had a 45 litre keg available.
A hint of autolysis in the yeast sludge which I hope wont make it into the beer flavour - leaving it on yeast cake for three weeks not so bright even if it is cold then lagering.
Kegged beer can lager for another week or so then gas it up.
Bottles are out of the fridge to gas then will return them to lagering after a week or so.

The Lager is lagering
Have finally put the lager in the fridge down stairs for a few weeks of lagering at low temp.

Will rack into a big keg (45 litre) once the yeast drops out. I guess that will be the weekend. I think I have more than 45 litres so may bottle a few - first time in about five years.

On the espresso front have started stripping and cleaning bits of the Bezzera. A couple descale soak and flushes of the big (13 litre) boiler and a few semi blocked pipes off and cleaned. Managed to overtighten and break part of the steam valve - luckily its interchanable with the water valve which to me is superfluous.

Oh no - a new vice...
I bought a big old Bezzera 2 Group Espresso Machine on Ebay. Needs a bit of a clean up but will leave that until after my birthday (just in case I break something).














Yes it does have a top and both sides.

Diacetyl Rest and a cool Toy
The lager is in adiacetyl rest at ~17c to deal with any precursors to diacetyl (image!). Will hold for a day then let it cool back to 11c and think about racking into a 45 litre keg for lagering in the studio fridge.
Cool toy - check this out at Makezine.