Lagering
 

Is 35 degrees too cold for the first 12 days of lagering before the diacetyl rest?

I think you generally want to do a dyacetyl rest prior to lagering. My understanding is that the ideal situation is when you ramp up to a D-rest at the very end of fermentation before the yeast floc out. Then start to ramp down to lagering.

Yep, this is the typical protocol. Lager after all fermentation is complete.

As the others mentioned, you lager after the d-rest, not before it. Before the d-rest, you're not lagering, you're just fermenting (albeit, at temperatures cooler than an ale ferment would occur).

Ferment at 45° - 50° F until you're 2/3 of the way to your final gravity. Then raise the temp to room temp for 2 days for your diacetyl rest. Then slowly (about 5° F/day) lower the temperature down to your lagering temperature (33° - 40° F) for 6-8 weeks.

+1
 

as the others have said!

I believe what I meant to say was.... Is 35 degrees too cold for the fermentation process of my beer that I am going to lager. Thanks for the answers!

Yes, that's far too cold for fermentation. Lagers need to be fermented at 48-53 degrees or so. Under 45 degrees, the yeast will be inactive.

Is it fair to assume that the yeast no longer plays a part during the layering process? Having just started cold temperature brewing, I had planned to filter the beer through my 1 micron (absolute) filter into my key and then lager for 4 to 6 weeks.

Once you get below 40 F, the yeast go dormant, so much of the maturation that occurs during lagering is not biological, but is purely chemical and physical in nature