Frozen Lager

[DUANNE]

hi every one. i have a bit of a predicament. i brew in a temp controlled chest freezer and had an aussie lager in there brewing away nicely on its third day. i got home from work last night to discover that one of my kids had pullrd the temp probe out of the freezer and my wort was about 75 percent frozen. i have left it out over night and today and it has nearly defrosted again and now my question is has anyone had an experiance like this before, and will it fire up again if i leave it or am i going to need to repitch the yeast when it has fully defrosted and gets back up to temp. at the moment im taking the suck it and see approach but any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks bh

 

[masculator002]

hi every one. i have a bit of a predicament. i brew in a temp controlled chest freezer and had an aussie lager in there brewing away nicely on its third day. i got home from work last night to discover that one of my kids had pullrd the temp probe out of the freezer and my wort was about 75 percent frozen. i have left it out over night and today and it has nearly defrosted again and now my question is has anyone had an experiance like this before, and will it fire up again if i leave it or am i going to need to repitch the yeast when it has fully defrosted and gets back up to temp. at the moment im taking the suck it and see approach but any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks bh

Some of the yeast would probably have survived but it will probably be slow to start and depending how much of it has died it may be worth racking to a second fermenter as well as repitching with more yeast, this will reduce the amount of dead yeast which could cause probs.
By the way what a bummer!!!!

 

[benno1973]

I would guess repitch another yeast. Yeast doesn't like being frozen, so if they're not all dead, you'll have killed at least some of them. Head to the HBS, pick up another pack of yeast and repitch. My 2c

 

[BoilerBoy]

Its happened to me a couple of times and it made no difference, carbed up fine.

Cheers,
BB

 

[altone]

hi every one. i have a bit of a predicament. i brew in a temp controlled chest freezer and had an aussie lager in there brewing away nicely on its third day. i got home from work last night to discover that one of my kids had pullrd the temp probe out of the freezer and my wort was about 75 percent frozen. i have left it out over night and today and it has nearly defrosted again and now my question is has anyone had an experiance like this before, and will it fire up again if i leave it or am i going to need to repitch the yeast when it has fully defrosted and gets back up to temp. at the moment im taking the suck it and see approach but any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks bh

Yep, same as previous post.
I just let it be and the only downside was a couple of days longer before it got to finish fermenting.
Tasted just like the previous batch.

Although if I'd had some spare yeast sitting around, I would have pitched it.

 

[DR.RELAX]

i cc'd an ale a littile while back and made a beer slushie and it carbed up in the bottle fairly quickly(after thawing)

rob

 

[argon]

I recently had the same thing happen... frozen lager... started up again no worries after a day or so started bubbling away again fine... turned out to be a really nice and clear batch

 

[Feral Shane]

MMMMMM..... Beer slushie my favourite summer lunch.

 

[Ross]

Beerhog,

Just to confirm what others have said - the yeast will be fine, no need to worry at all.

cheers Ross

 

[dug]

like Ross and others have said. Just thaw it out and it will be fine.