Frozen Beer

[SG9090]

Just went to check on 50L of Scottish ale which was cold conditioning and found it almost frozen solid.
Anyone know if this will affect the beer in any way?

Cheers,

Shane

 

[WarmBeer]

It might affect your yeast viability, depending on how cold, and how long it was frozen for.

Are you planning on kegging or bottling it?

If kegging, nothing more needs to be done, other that waiting for it to defrost.

If bottling, you should probably perform a "fast ferment test" to check for yeast viability. Bottle a single stubbie of the defrosted beer, add 3 or 4 teaspoons of sugar, give it a good swirl, then put a balloon over the neck of the stubbie (do not, I repeat, DO NOT, cap the stubbie with a normal cap!) and leave it somewhere warm. If the balloon is not showing obvious signs of blowing up within 48 hours, you've killed your yeast.

If you have killed you yeast, you can mix in a little bit of another yeast pack, say 1/8th of a pack, into the fermenter before bottling. Make sure the yeast is mixed well into the beer before bottling it. This will add enough yeast to carbonate your beer

Good luck

 

[Lecterfan]

Just went to check on 50L of Scottish ale which was cold conditioning and found it almost frozen solid.
Anyone know if this will affect the beer in any way?

Cheers,

Shane

Quite a lot of my CC beers freeze into semi-slushy sludge - I've never had a totally solid block. All come out nice and clear and take a few extra weeks to carb up (not a problem if you are a dedicated kegger). I tend to almost do it on purpose as my beers now get a standard 2 weeks CC because I don't filter and don't want to use post-kettle finings and this helps drop a lot of extra stuff out before racking onto a priming solution.

I know that some will advocate adding back a small quantity of yeast, but it hasn't affected the 10 or so brews that it has happenned with for me.

Cheers!

 

[Blackapple]

Bring some along to the next meet and we'll give it the taste test. :icon_cheers:

 

[SG9090]

Ok thanks guys. I am planning to bottle and will test as advised by Warmbeer.

Cheers,

Shane

 

[SG9090]

Bring some along to the next meet and we'll give it the taste test. :icon_cheers:

Will do,
Do we have fixed dates yet?

 

[Blackapple]

Pretty sure its the weekend of the 15/16 oct at Glenns place, guess we'll all work it out closer to the time.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Done this cold conditioning a weissbier.

No biggie, I'll get it out of the freezer, let it warm a little, and then keg it.

Hopefully it thaws out quickly with this warmer night.

Goomba