Operation Deepfreeze: Is my beer ruined?

[psotos]

So someone, and it could have been me, was messing with my freezer (Haier HF09CM10NW Chest Freezer, 8.9 Cubic Feet) which cause the temp probe to FALL OUT! That kicked my stc 1000 into overdrive because it kept reading room temp and it left my freezer on.

So with that the Pilsner I had in there FROZE.

Amazingly I have warmed it up and it appears to be slowly bubbling again. Could that bad ass yeast have survived? Is my beer going to be ok?

 

[poptarts]

My guess would be your attenuation will suck and you will have no head retention. But those are just guesses.

 

[flars]

Yeast does survive freezing. Let it go as if nothing happened. If your beer was in a carboy it most likely did not freeze completely, or your carboy would have cracked.

 

[psotos]

Thankfully Carboy is in tact!

 

[Samuelouellette]

Personally, I would repitch some of the same yeast or 2 dry pack of 34/70 in case the surviving yeast are weak and to resume proper fermentation. I had a stout in a keg that frozen once. It was still great with no signs of off taste (then again its harder to taste off flavor in a stout compared to a pilsner).

Good luck!

 

[JimRausch]

Freeze brewed?
Yeast are pretty hardy little buggers. I think you'll be fine. Either J. P.'s book, or maybe it was Papa Charlie's book has a story of a frozen batch that turned out well. And it's happened to some of us mortals as well.

 

[psotos]

So I am assuming the cold crash caused air to get in my beer, thereby making it go bad.

 

[kombat]

That's definitely infected, but I don't believe it has anything to do with the unintentional cold crash. Brewers cold crash all the time without infecting the beer with the miniscule amount of air that gets sucked back. I'd take a look elsewhere in your process.

 

[Samuelouellette]

Did you use vodka/sanitizer in your air airlock? If not that could be the cause of the infection since you probably got a suck-back

 

[psotos]

I used starsan as usual.

is there any way of saving this beer or should I just chuck it?

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

Damn sorry bud, we lost a good one today!

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

I used starsan as usual.

is there any way of saving this beer or should I just chuck it?

There is no way to combat the infection. I would dump it if it were mine, but it's entirely up to you. Drinking it would not harm you.

 

[psotos]

So if I say siphon out the bottom half will it taste good?

<-- Hates throwing away beer!

 

[psotos]

So I kegged it and I am carbonating it now. We will see just how awful it is! LOL

 

[jrgtr42]

Worth a shot - who knows, it could turn out great...
However, make sure you go nuts in cleaning and sanitizing everything that the beer is coming in contact with.

 

[passedpawn]

Good luck, but for me it's a tosser. I know from experience it will just ruin your days as you suck down beer that's less than savory.

Ask yourself why you brew beer.

 

[passedpawn]

Good luck, but for me it's a tosser. I know from experience it will just ruin your days as you suck down beer that's less than savory.

Ask yourself why you brew beer.

 

[gtg431g]

Anxious to hear how this tastes. Please report back!

 

[psotos]

Im calling this Infection Ale! LOL Carbonating it now. I will taste it in the next few days. I'm going to sneak it on some unsuspecting Aussies. LOL

 

[s4l]

Maybe you just created a badass new sour, or just a terrible ale.

Good luck!

 

[psotos]

It tastes ok. I know I am crazy. Anyway hopefully my IPA will be ready to keg soon.

 

[Samuelouellette]

Not too sour?