Frozen carboys

Well I found one of the drawbacks to using a freezer with temperature control. If you don't put the probe in the freezer you get frozen carboys....

I ferment in the freezer normally so I had one batch that was already done sitting in the other room, had a mild in the freezer that I was ready to put into a keg. I wanted to crash cool both of them and put them in kegs so I set the control at 34 degrees. So I set both carboys in the freezer, removing the probe so I wouldn't set one on it. I forgot to put it back in... 12 hours later I notice the freezer is still running and realize my mistake...

So the two carboys seem to be frozen, the airlocks were frozen and when I removed them there was an inrush of air (the air contracted inside yet couldn't pull any more air since the airlock was frozen). I put new airlocks on the fermenters and unplugged the freezer, it is currently setting open at home hopefully slowly thawing.

I didn't see any cracks on the carboys so I hope they are OK, we'll see when I get home tonight. I figure the beer will be fine, I'm just worried about the carboys as they are hard to get now. Think the beer froze all the way through in 12 hours? (two 5 gallon batches in 6.5 gallon carboys).

well you definitely cold crashed it. your beer will be just fine, the carboys should be as well as long as theyre thawed slowly. hell, you might even still have some viable yeast.

I hope so I don't need viable yeast but I also didn't want any autolysis happening from the ice crystals killing too many. I'm sure it will be fine as there are lots of posts about people freezing the beer, just was a dumb moment

I had that happen... kinda. I left a carboy outside soaking, cuz i was gonna brew on monday, and then I broke my arm.. and it froze Monday night.... no more carboy! i hope yours make it through ok

I can come out to Dundee and help you sample them if you need

I have done that once and I started to notice tiny stress fractures forming on one of my carboys.

Thanks for the well-wishing, I'll make sure to look for the stress cracks once I've emptied them.

RC we need to do a chicago area meetup sometime

We are trying to plan one in the Chicago(land) group meet HomeBrewTalk Groups - Chicago land brewers

I was out in One of the Dundee's last weekend (a 5 min walk to the 2 brew pubs) vising a friend.

conpewter, I did the exact same thing once... only with Better Bottles, so cracking wasn't an issue, but they were frozen solid. Felt like the biggest idiot in the world. And the beer?... it was one of my tastiest ever.

menschmaschine said:

conpewter, I did the exact same thing once... only with Better Bottles, so cracking wasn't an issue, but they were frozen solid. Felt like the biggest idiot in the world. And the beer?... it was one of my tastiest ever.

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cold filtered like bud ice just tastes better

menschmaschine said:

conpewter, I did the exact same thing once... only with Better Bottles, so cracking wasn't an issue, but they were frozen solid. Felt like the biggest idiot in the world. And the beer?... it was one of my tastiest ever.

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Awesome, glad that it didn't change (or changed for the better?!) the flavor of the beer. I just hope it is all still in the carboys when I get home and not in the bottom of the freezer

We are trying to plan one in the Chicago(land) group meet HomeBrewTalk Groups - Chicago land brewers

I was out in One of the Dundee's last weekend (a 5 min walk to the 2 brew pubs) vising a friend.

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Oh yes, Emmett's tavern is absolutely wonderful. I have a beer club membership there ($25 for lifetime memebership). Special events plus a "pint" for me is a 25 ounce mug. They rotat through a lot of seasonals and all of their brew is awesome. M.T. Barrels is nice as well, I just have not been there as often. I'll look into the group meet, would be cool.

It's good they didn't break. I lost 5 gallons of a Riesling mead a few months ago.

Didn't break, I don't think they froze all the way through as they were thawed completely when I got home, whew!