Frozen Carboy When Trying to Cold Crash

Kegerator thermostat got toyed w/ by the toddler. Froze a scottish in the carboy. I have pulled it out and and defrosting before sending it to the keg. What are the taste/quality repercussions of this, if any?

I'd be more worried about 'did I crack my carboy'....

Lets see, I think the CO2 volume will be severly attenuated, the water will have seperated from the 'impurities' leaving you with a sort of 'condensed beer' and water in the carboy - some stiring to get it all mixed together should be done....

I had a temp controller go out once while I was lagering a CAP. I didn't notice any significant flaws that I could specifically blame on the freezing.

Dont brewers do this to get a bigger ABV sometimes? The water should be on top.

It is totally thawed now --- I will rack it into the keg and see how it goes I guess. The carboy appears to be unphased. It was a glass 5gal secondary that I got from a former wine maker.

Wonder if I should shake it up and let it settle out or just rack as is?

EricT said:

Dont brewers do this to get a bigger ABV sometimes? The water should be on top.

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Yeah this is the process that Tactical Nuclear Penguin (~41%) and Sink the Bismark(~38%) use. They make the beer, then freeze it, as it thaws, the Alcohol and other non water impurities come out with some of the water first, the rest of the mostly water based iced (instead of impurity based ice) can then be tossed - litterally as it is a solid chunk.

You can do this at home by making popcicles with Kool-aid (or beer)... at the bottom of the popsicle holder will be all the flavor and sugar and ice at the top. You start eating it (flipping it over) and put all the tasty stuff first and are left with ice at the end.

I might try after racking a gentle stir tobring the watery beer and condensed beer back into more of a beer equilibrium..... Although a proper rack can do a lot of that for you.

guppergoo said:

It is totally thawed now --- I will rack it into the keg and see how it goes I guess. The carboy appears to be unphased. It was a glass 5gal secondary that I got from a former wine maker.

Wonder if I should shake it up and let it settle out or just rack as is?

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As ACbrewer said, I would just rack it as is.

I would try to get the thermostat out of reach of the toddler too