Kegging Emergency!! 911!

Hey everybody, I just found out that my first keg that I put in the keezer 3 days ago is.........FROZEN! My Johnson digital controller was set at 42F and displayed this setpoint everytime I looked at it.

I work shift work at my job and have been been working nights and sleeping days, so I've been a little bit out of it. Every time I've checked it, it seemed real cold but I didn't think it was frozen. Finally I had to check it and put a cup of water in there and in two hours it was almost completely frozen.

Letting pressure off my keg has done nothing but shoot foam out of the top and make a loud knocking in the keg. I want to vent pressure and look inside to see how frozen it is. I don't know if its screwed or not, but I want to try to salvage it the best I can.

The only good news is that the foam is carbonated and tastes great but I don't know about the BEER!

Please help if you have any suggestions

I'd suggest taking it out and letting it warm up. Take it off gas, and when it's warmed up for a few days, let the pressure out and check it. Since it's just freezing the water, I'd assume you can just give it a gentle stir and hope it will all mix up fairly well. I've never dealt with frozen beer though...so who knows..

I'd take it out of the kegerator and let it thaw, so you don't damage the keg. The beer will be fine!

When you take it out, if it sloshes around, then it's not frozen solid. Then, you can release the pressure and remove the lid if you want to see it. I'd just take it out and let it thaw, and try to fix the issue with the freezer.

YooperBrew said:

I'd take it out of the kegerator and let it thaw, so you don't damage the keg. The beer will be fine!

When you take it out, if it sloshes around, then it's not frozen solid. Then, you can release the pressure and remove the lid if you want to see it. I'd just take it out and let it thaw, and try to fix the issue with the freezer.

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Thanks again Yooper, it's out of the freezer and thawing out. When I get this done is there any adjustments I need to make for recarbing it? Or have I overcarbed it because of the freeze and if so how do I adjust for that?

I've done the same thing. Mine froze slowly so the beer just kept getting stronger and heavier.

Dido what yooperbrew said. The beer will probably be fine. You need to leave it at room temp for a couple/few days and it will thaw. The most critical part is making sure the keg isnt ruined. The expansion in the keg can stretch and irreparably damage your keg. Give it a few days and gently mix the beer back up. If you tap it too soon you will have frozen water and a thick beer that is high in alcohol content. Then when the rest of the beer thaws it will taste watered down. Let it thaw, fix your cooling system and you should be back up and running in no time.

Cool. Once again I'm thinking I'll be overcarbed for a couple days and now I'll have to play that game I tried to avoid by not force carbing (at least not at high pressure) which is finding that sweet spot again after bringing the carbonation back down.

Am I just going to have to start over again at ground zero after thawing? Any tips or suggestions?

where is your thermometer in the keezer? they seem to cool from the bottom up, so you probably want to put the probe closer to the bottom... that way it reads the cold air from the bottom instead of the warm air at the top and still think it can cool down even more...

Hahaha, I just had this same issue with my kegerator that is out in my un-insulated garage. I pulled pint off it a few nights ago and noticed that the beer had some killer kick to it (more than normal). The next day i went to have another beer and nothing came out.... Basically I got a little freeze distillation going on, it was in the teens for a little while here in Oregon so my kegerator froze over. It took the beer a few days to thaw but all is well now. It was a little under carbed but nothing bad

Brewin_CRAZY said:

Hahaha, I just had this same issue with my kegerator that is out in my un-insulated garage. I pulled pint off it a few nights ago and noticed that the beer had some killer kick to it (more than normal). The next day i went to have another beer and nothing came out.... Basically I got a little freeze distillation going on, it was in the teens for a little while here in Oregon so my kegerator froze over. It took the beer a few days to thaw but all is well now. It was a little under carbed but nothing bad

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Once again I'm wondering if it's possible to bring carbonation up to proper levels after a deep freeze

Once the beer is thawed out but still cold tap some and see where it is at. This will tell you if you need to recarbonate the beer.

You need to address the problem with the keezer. Cold air sinks so it will always be several degrees colder in the bottomof the keezer than the top. There are a coule things you can do to help with this.

- Mount your temperature probe for the controller lower in the keezer

- Hook a small computer fan or two up inside the keezer to circulate the air.

- Every couple beers check the temp of the beer that you are tapping in your glass. This may tell you if your beer is in jeopardy.

duffman2 said:

Once again I'm wondering if it's possible to bring carbonation up to proper levels after a deep freeze

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It will be fine just let it thaw and put it back on the gas at your normal serving pressure. Freezing it will in no way ruin the beers ability to absorb co2

When my beer froze , when it thawed , it was over carbed. Not a big deal. As its thawing and after. Just pull the relief valve a few times throughout a few days. You'll be fine and up in running by end of week 3-5 days.

Alright. It's thawed out and now I vented the CO2, resealed the lid with 20 psi, vented, and reset it at 12 psi in the freezer at 42 F. Now to wait. Again.