First brew is in primary!

After close to a year of being the "brewing buddy" at a friend's place, I had my own first brew day Sunday. I brewed up an Oktoberfest kit I received at Christmas. It was a fairly idiot proof kit; one bag contained all the DME and bittering hops, with a little Irish Moss and two unlabeled hops packets (one was labeled "flavor" hops and the other "aroma" hops) for late additions. Just the same, a couple mistakes were made as would be expected with new equipment and environment, but nothing that I think will have any negative impact on the beer. Depending on whether we go by my hydrometer or my buddy's refractometer, we either nailed the target OG, or were just a hair high. I'm pleased.

Anyway, I'm now into mostly uncharted territory; all the post brew activities (ie, mostly waiting). I pitched 11.5g of Saflager S-23 dry yeast. The carboy is sitting in my basement (ranging from 52-54F, a nice range for this yeast). The airlock started bubbling just a little yesterday, and a little more this morning, so I suspect the yeast are starting to make their magic. So here's question number 1: How long, in general, should it take this beer to start to develop a krausen? I know ales have reached that point fairly quickly at my buddy's place, but I've been woefully ignorant of our first couple lager attempts.

And question number 2: I plan to use a diacetyl rest for this brew. Are there any signs to watch for, or general guidelines as to when I should start taking hydrometer measurements to determine the right time for the diacetyl rest? I know that I need to start that rest when I'm close to my FG, I'm just not sure if there are any rules of thumb for when to start checking if I'm close...

My basement fridge is now all set, empty and waiting to lager this batch. I can hardly wait to get to that point and... er... wait some more before I can enjoy the fruits of my labors.

For your first question. Dont touch it for at least two weeks

For your second question... A diacetyl test is not something that needs any extra work or anything. Here is a blurb from www.beerme.com to explain it a bit better.

You're not going to believe how simple this is. Do a “diacetyl rest”; that is, leave your beer in the fermenter for two or three days after it looks like the fermentation is complete. That's it. That will give the yeast time to clean up the diacetyl they've produced. If you're brewing an ale, the fermentation temperature is already high enough that the cleanup will proceed rather quickly. If you're brewing a lager, try this trick: start allowing the fermentation temperature to rise once the beer has fermented to half its original gravity. By that point, you're far enough into the fermentation that the yeast aren't going to generate any more “ale” characters (such as fruity esters) and you've still got enough time to let the temperature rise to a useful level, say, 65°F. Maintain this temperature until the diacetyl is gone or until the end of fermentation, whichever is later, then rack for lagering

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