What happens with a diacetyl rest when not necessary?

So in my self education with lagering through Palmer's How to Brew and this forum I have read many times that with brewing lagers, a diacetyl rest may be needed at or near the end of fermentation. All the information that I have seen has stated that to perform the diacetyl rest only if needed. My question is, what happens to the beer if you perform a diacetyl rest when it is not needed? I couldn't find here what would happen if you raise the temperature for the rest if it is not needed.


If anybody is curious or if it helps answer the question here the plan for finishing up my first attempt at a lager. On day 15, raise temperature controller from 52 to 57. Leave the beer at this temp from day 15-17, then beginning on day 17 drop the temperature controller by 3 degrees a day until I hit 38 degrees. Then I will rack to a secondary vessel and let it lager for two months.

I am thinking of this extended time just because I pitched a fairly large yeast starter at a temp of around 67. So fermentation likely started in the higher range. I am hoping that with this extended time this will help to clean up any off flavors that may have developed.

Doing a diacetyl rest when it's not needed won't effect your beer. It's just an extra step that could have been skipped.

+1

Nope won't hurt anything, but then again you would really have to do a diacetyl test to know if you need to do it so for lazy folks like me I would rather do the rest then a diacetyl test. As far as off flavor cleaning, I you probably are good to go on that without doing the extended slow temp drop. If you pitched warm and didn't get the temp down in lag phase then you are going to have some esters and such, nothing you can do about that now.