DanMalleck
Active Member
I have been having the worst brew days this year. Today's misadventure: I have a chest freezer with a temperature controller from Johnson Controls. I was using it for fermenting a brown ale I brewed a few weeks ago (and which I could not for the life of me get to chill below 70 until I set up the freezer/fermenter). Yesterday I was moving some stuff around the room where the freezer is located and I removed the temperature probe to get at something behind the freezer. Then I left it out as I got back to doing what I was doing.
Today as I began to set up to bottle, I went to the freezer and guess what? Yes. The beer was frozen solid. A 3.5 gallon beercicle.
So, I know I can thaw it and I know the yeast is dead. But if I hydrate a pack of dry yeast and throw it in before bottling, could that allow for bottle conditioning? Or should I make a starter so the yeast is ready to go?
Or should I just resolve myself to have a flat beer (which I will call a real ale because I have to salvage it somehow)?
Today as I began to set up to bottle, I went to the freezer and guess what? Yes. The beer was frozen solid. A 3.5 gallon beercicle.
So, I know I can thaw it and I know the yeast is dead. But if I hydrate a pack of dry yeast and throw it in before bottling, could that allow for bottle conditioning? Or should I make a starter so the yeast is ready to go?
Or should I just resolve myself to have a flat beer (which I will call a real ale because I have to salvage it somehow)?