Will a diacetyl rest (lager) hurt if not actually needed?

Like the title says, when making a lager, would it be detrimental to do a diacetyl rest if unnecessary?

I brewed a mini-mash Oktoberfest last weekend and pitched a *huge* 4L starter of Southern German Lager WL838 after the beer had cooled to 50F for 2 days. O.G = 1.060

Fermentation took off within 12h and when I took the gravity two days later, I also took the wort temperature and it was 55F (although fridge air temp was 50F). Then I cooled the fridge air temp to 45F and today, 4 days after pitching, gravity was already down to 1.024! Beer temp was 50F (air temp still 45F). The beer is still fermenting pretty vigorously.

I tasted the hydrometer sample and I don't think I tasted any "buttery" taste (still a little bit of sweetness, though), but I've never tasted diacetyl so I don;t actually know.

I am thinking about doing a diacetyl rest now (since the beer is almost done fermenting) just to be safe....but I don't want to totally screw up a beer I am going to lager until September.

Leave it alone, or play it safe?

Nope. I subscribe to the "better safe than sorry" idea of doing them all the time.

So be it. Now, should I do it now...or wait until the gravity is essentially at final gravity? I have read conflicting recommendations on both HBT and other sites.

It's one of those things you're ultimately going to decide on for yourself. It's not that they conflict, it just like in every other aspectof this hobby, is that there are multiple ways of doing things, and they all work for the folks who do them. And there's usually a ton of info/opinions/rationalizations for each way we do things. I tend to wait til fermentation is complete and do the rest before I rack to secondary and lager it. Other's do it when fermentation is 80 or 90% complete.

You're just going to have to try each way and see what works in your system.

Revvy is right on point.
Here is a little more info.
http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/diacetyl.html

dzlater said:

Revvy is right on point.
Here is a little more info.
http://www.professorbeer.com/articles/diacetyl.html

Click to expand...

Very good article, I can't wait to cruise through the rest of the blog.