Here's a test for whether your beer is dicetyly:
So how do you know if your beer will need a diacetyl rest? There is a diacetyl test which any homebrewer can do. It requires two glasses , some foil or plastic wrap, some hot water at 140-160F (60-71C), and some cold water. The principle is simple. At warmer temperatures, the precursor to diacetyl, alpha-acetolactate (AAL), will oxidize quickly into diacetyl in your young beer. In essence, you will be testing for the presence of excessive levels of AAL in your beer. So, here is how the test goes:
* Put a sample of your young beer into each of two glasses and cover them.
* Put one glass in the hot water bath and keep it there for about 10-20 minutes.
* After 20 minutes, cool the hot beer to the same relative temperature as the control sample by placing it in a cold water bath for a few minutes.
* Remove the covers and smell each of your beer samples (don't forget which is which). One of the following things will happen:
1. Neither sample smells buttery. This is the best-case-scenario because it means that all of the diacetyl precursor AAL has already been converted to diacetyl and your beer does not need a diacetyl rest.
2. The heated sample smells buttery, but the control sample does not. This indicates that there is excessive AAL in your beer and you should ramp the temp up (if it's a lager) by 5-10 F (1 - 2C) for a diacetyl rest, and age it for a few days to allow the AAL to form diacetyl and the yeast to metabolize the diacetyl. For ales, a few more days of conditioning is indicated. You need to do the test again to insure conversion is complete and your beer is stable.
3. Both samples can smell like butter. This might indicate a pedio infection, in which case you should probably dump the beer. It could also mean that your yeast cannot metabolize the diacetyl because the majority of them are petite mutants.
I've never tried it, but it sounds interesting.
