So I froze a beer

[WhiskeySam]

My ranco malfunctioned while I was out of the country. Kolsch was in the chest freezer fermenting. Returned to find about half a gallon of frozen Kolsch (the squeeze out) frozen around a solid block of frozen half fermented Kolsch in a carboy.

-30 in an unregulated chest freezer will do that.

It's probably going to finish thawing tomorrow.

Question - did I kill the yeast? This beer has been a bit of a problem for me. I'm hoping I at least get to drink it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[corey1581]

AHH!! Same thing happened to me a couple of weekends ago. My kids were fooling around and yanked the thermonitor out of my freezer. I thawed mine back out and waited until it came back to fermentation temperature. It took a gravity reading, and mine was finished anyways (or real close). If it was not done, I probably would have just repitched if the yeast did not spring back to life. The beer was a dunkel and salvaged fine... tasted great. Just lots of floaty stuff in it which did not clear out well. Probably should have left it in the secondary longer after it thawed back out.

I would just check your gravity, and if it's not done and the yeast is dead, just repitch. No worries, it'll still be beer and that's the point!

 

[skw]

When life gives you frozen beer, make Eisbock

j/k. Thaw it and rep itch, you should be fine.

 

[cheezydemon3]

^WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY!

It does have have to be fermented first......FWIW, eis is the EASIEST way to make a barleywine or "distill" legally.