OK. I'm back. Long story cut short - I almost quit brewing a few months back, but I'm back. To the topic at hand, lager vs kveik.
I killed both kegs. Quickly. Some of the quickest kicked kegs ever. Both beers after a few months in the keg, turned out absolutely incredible. Worlds apart, but both fantastic. As a quick summed up version of the two, here we go:
Diamond Lager:
This beer was clear, crisp, hoppy, fresh and distinctively Pilsner-like up to the last sip. It changed drastically from fresh (1 month after kegging) all the way up to around 2 months after kegging, and then the "development" of the beer stopped. The beer's flavour was on point, sweet, with the hop flavour and aroma I wanted in that beer. It also made a fantastic shandy that my wife enjoyed thoroughly. Overall, it did what the Diamond Lager yeast was expected to do, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Kveik Lutra:
This beer was clear, and distinctively ale-like. I don't know how to describe it, but it just wasn't crisp, light, fresh. The hop character was severely subdued and it felt like it evaporated off the beer during the vigorous fermentation from the Lutra, which correlates with other reports I've heard saying the same. The beer also seemingly improved as time went on, up to the last glass, becoming more and more smooth and easier drinking. It didn't "stop improving" with time, so to speak. However, there was an almost umami-like note in the beer, from early on, and it didn't get worse with time. The flavour wasn't overpowering and it wasn't terrible at all, but I tasted it in there. As I mentioned before, it reminded me of Marmite, or Vegemite, if you're familiar with it. It's a yeast extract so while I suspect it could be autolysis, I highly doubt it and it doesn't make sense to me in the short timespan it spent in the keg. So I don't know.
I have to make it clear again - both beers were great. I cleaned the kegs this past weekend, and what was interesting was how solid the sludge in the bottom of the Lager keg was. It was solid enough that I had to spray it off with the hand shower in the tub, and eventually had to scrub it a bit. The Kveik yeast's sludge just rinsed off easily.
As a final point - if you want to make a hoppy Pilsner, get Diamond Lager. Kveik destroys the delicate hop aromas and flavours that's associated with it, and it's not a fit for this style of beer. It's not clean enough, it's not crisp enough and it's not a substitute for a decent lager yeast, in my opinion, and that's my last notion on the topic.
The other side of this test, as you may remember from before, was seeing if the beer conditions better or worse warm or cold. As such I bottled two of these beers, and sat both in a cool closet for 2 weeks to carbonate naturally. After that, one beer was moved to the fridge and stored at 2°C for the past 3 months, while the other sat in the closet, conditioning at office room temperature, mostly between 20°C and 22°C. It sat there for 3 months and was moved to the fridge the other day, ready for the test. I hope to do a side-by-side comparison of the two beers very soon and to post a video about it on YouTube, so keep an eye on this thread!