Thanks for posting your results. i was curious about the info on that podcast but reluctant to try it out without hearing some testimonials.

What i do to flame it it´s to put some rubbing alcohol in the lip of the bottle soon as I open it and ligth it

Sleephla, yeah, you'll have to keep changing bottles to maintain temps, especially with a lager. But once you get it dialed in, it's easy to maintain with a bottle (or two) here and there.
Wrangler, the brand of tote I prefer I've gotten at Home Cheapo, it's a Pioneer Plastics brand. Home Depot keeps these totes by the large outdoor trash bins. The one pictures above is a cheapie ($6) from WalMart. I found that in the home storage area. Both work great.

No, I don't harvest from homebrew bottles, but I do reuse yeast. I just wash and save part of the cake from some batches to use in starters later.

Thanks for the great post. I'm really new to all of this, but will definitely have to use a swamp cooler for my next brew as I live in Alabama (and It's May). I know I've seen those types of buckets before, but I can't seem to find anything similar at lowes. Do you happen to recall the brand? Much thanks.

Thanks for this post. I've been trying to find a way to brew lagers to ferment properly and haven't purchased any kits due to my temps never going below 65 in my basement. Do you have to keep changing to ice bottles to maintain the 50-55 degrees that some recipes prefer to lager?