frozen beer

Just to help beginners, I'm going to admit a mistake that could stay hidden forever.

It doesn't matter how, but I froze an entire carboy of Dead Ringer. First instinct...something as close to panic as I get. I really didn't want to bottle a batch that wasn't going to pan out. I effin hate bottling, and my keg system is still being put together.

Well, I thawed it, and threw a tsp of dry yeast in my priming solution, bottled that ****, and said a little prayer to the beer gods.

Due to other improvements I had made in my process, this is my best beer yet.
The point being, no matter how stupid or monumental your mistake, you should indeed relax and have a homebrew. It's shocking how hard it is to eff up beer.

I have to know how... for the love of all golden delicious beer, how does one accidentally freeze a carboy LOL... Did you cold crash it in a modified DF and accidentally set the temp too low?

That's cool it turned out well enough you would call it your best beer yet - just a testament to the strength of yeast and a home-brewer's will to never give up on a batch until you absolutely have to.

The freezing story is awfully ridiculous. Yes, I got a deep freeze, but had yet to get a temp controller. I hypothesized, that an otherwise empty, ancient chest freezer starting at ambient temp would take longer than overnight to freeze 5 gallons of beer. After getting it to 30-40 degrees I would unplug the unit. Boom, cold crashed beer. I was mistaken.

40watt said:

The freezing story is awfully ridiculous. Yes, I got a deep freeze, but had yet to get a temp controller. I hypothesized, that an otherwise empty, ancient chest freezer starting at ambient temp would take longer than overnight to freeze 5 gallons of beer. After getting it to 30-40 degrees I would unplug the unit. Boom, cold crashed beer. I was mistaken.

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Heh! Awesome, little did the troll thermostat know that it did nothing to hurt the beer, just prolonged it's inevitable deliciousness by a couple days..

Had a feeling that may might have been the cause, I almost did something similar at one time

Embarrassed to say I've done this more than once and I have a Ranco controller for the ferment chamber. Hint - when cleaning or moving fermenters in and out make sure the temp probe doesn't fall out onto the garage floor in the middle of summer.

Beer was fine.

chickypad said:

Embarrassed to say I've done this more than once and I have a Ranco controller for the ferment chamber. Hint - when cleaning or moving fermenters in and out make sure the temp probe doesn't fall out onto the garage floor in the middle of summer.

Beer was fine.

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Ha! I'll remember to look out for that.

Wow, was there ANY yeast in the carboy? I froze a few bottles of an IPA I made and the lysed yeast made the beer worse than undrinkable. I nearly gagged. If you're studying for BJCP or the Cicerone's exam it's a good way to learn the autolysis flavor.

daksin said:

Wow, was there ANY yeast in the carboy? I froze a few bottles of an IPA I made and the lysed yeast made the beer worse than undrinkable. I nearly gagged. If you're studying for BJCP or the Cicerone's exam it's a good way to learn the autolysis flavor.

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Not much yeast. It had been fined with gelatin, and transfered to secondary because I dry hopped. Between that and the cold crash, what little yeast was present was left behind.

Best beer I ever made I grommet from airlock hole in the bucket lid fell into the wort right after I pitched yeast.

I sprayed my arm down good with starsan ad reached down in there and fit it out. I thought it was pretty well ruined.

Well that same batch won our monthly informal taste completion at our local brew club.