Accidentally froze my stout.

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odie313

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Brewed a sweet stout last month. Had an OG of 1.048, FG was 1.021, for an approximate abv% of 3.5. Since I forgot to add a whirlfloc tablet during boiling, I decided to cold crash. I set my ferm chamber for 33f on this past Saturday night. When I pulled the beer out Monday night the carboy was frozen solid. I cranked up the heat wrap to 50F for the beer to thaw. I was then able to transfer to the keg.

My question is:
1. How would I calculate the new abv%
2. will this make it to sweet for consumption, if it is is there a fix.
 
If it thawed completely, there should be no change in ABV or sweetness.

Was there a lump of ice in the carboy?
 
If it thawed completely, there should be no change in ABV or sweetness.

Was there a lump of ice in the carboy?

This^^^

I had trouble with my temperature controller on my keezer and froze my kegs solid a couple of times (I've fixed it).

As long as you let the beer thaw completely there is not a change to the ABV.

I let my beers thaw and they were fine.
 
I let it thaw, but not completely. Did have some ice leftover in the carboy.
 
Took a hydrometer reading, still read the same. If i had to guess i would say I put about 4-4.5 gallons in the keg. I'm trying it right now;thought it would be too sweet, but its not. Now if I can only figure the ABV, its definitely above 3.5%.
 
Well, I'm going to assume you had 5 gallons of 3.5% stout. That means you had ~0.175 gallons of pure EtOH in there. (5*0.035 = .175)
Now you have 4.5 gallons total with 0.175 of that being EtOH. So, about 3.9% ABV. (.175/4.5 = .0388)
If it's 4 gallons total, about 4.4% ABV.

Easy peasy.
 
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