I froze a KEG!!

Well, as it thaws i am wondering what kind of damage i have done to the keg. The beer i am sure is ruined, but the keg. I am thinking just new o-rings.

Anyone ever done this before or am i the only village idot?

the beer might not actually be ruined. freezing isn't ideal, but once it thaws, it should be cool. I at least wouldn't count on it being toast yet.

did hte o-rings actually get damaged? If the keg wasn't totally full it should have had space for freezing expansion.

I know other guys have frozen kegs and bottles...it happens.

let us know how the beer tastes once thawed and possibly re-carb'd.

Um...thaw it out to a certaiin point, then separate the melted liquid from the ice block and discard the ice. Voila: eisbrau! Sure, it's usually done with bocks...but hey, why not see what happens?

RDWHAIHB

I = Iced.

I've froze one before....just let it thaw and turn the keg upside down a few times to "mix" it. If the keg still holds pressure, don't worry about it. They are, after all, good to over 100 psi.

If the keg does not have a gaping crack with beer slush oozing out, it and the beer are probably ok. Didn't happen to me, but I saw the results.

I froze a keg of apfelwein. After it thawed, it tasted exactly the same as it did before. I imagine beeris similar.

Been there, done that. Just let it thaw in the kegerator for a couple of days. You won't even taste the difference.

As long as you had a even a small air space you should be ok on the main structure of the keg. The only oddball thing I could see happening is damage to the dip tube.

The very first batch I made and kegged. Froze solid thawed out and tasted it picked up a real matalic taste. Tried waiting and sampling again. I threw out the beer. Used the keg again no problems.

Add me to the growing crowd of village idiots: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=30689

Beer fine and long since kicked; kegs fine and doing their duty; no repairs/replacements needed.

Good news about both keg and beer. Sounds like i have a good chance of both being fine.

I am heading home in about 20 min and will check it then and report back.

Well, both keg and beer are fine!

although, the beer has these weird little black floaties in it. It has been in the keg for about 3 months and i am thinking that when i shook it up after it thawed they are little bits of yeast that had settled out but are now drifting.

Upon closer inspection they may be very dark brown floaties and when pressed between my fingers they break apart and are undetectable.

Tastes good and they fall out of my glass of beer fairly quick. A week hooked up to the gas in the bar fridge and i think i will be good to go!

Add me to the list of idiots... froze a keg of Belgian Pale Friday evening. The 4912 was acting finicky. I tried to keep it at 40F to please all crowds; e.g. cold enough for BMC folk, but not too cold for me - I let it warm to 45 or so and drink. Anyway, normally it held just about 42 or so where I had it set, but temps are starting to increase here and it was pushing 45-50. So I turned it up one notch. Frozen beer, not good. At least I learned (too bad the hard way) how touchy the 4912 is, I'll leave it where I had it before, haha...

Anyway, the kegs look fine from the exterior and I've had the kegerator turned off for a few hours to let it thaw. It's now slush I believe from shaking the keg... we'll see what happens I guess.

Glad I removed some Belgian bottles (Lost Abbey) I had in the back behind the kegs - that would have been a mess.

I partially froze 6 kegs of beer dialing in my kegerator. Everything was fine after I let them sit for awile. Beer was good, and have not had any problems with the seals.

I froze beer before, the only thing was, i didn't notice it was freezing, and myself and my brew partner were drinking it, and getting significantly more drunk than we should have... But after we thawed it, it was fine

ron1guz said:

I partially froze 6 kegs of beer dialing in my kegerator. Everything was fine after I let them sit for awile. Beer was good, and have not had any problems with the seals.

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What impact will freezing this keg have on the beer as far as carbonation goes. I see the general consensus is that it will be fine if you mix it up a little after it thaws, but will it be uncarbed again and need to recarb on CO2. Will it be super-carbed? I'm not a science-whiz, so I'm confused by: a) as beer gets colder more CO2 will dissolve, but b) bottled beer thats frozen and thawed will more than likely be flat.

Is this because a keg is pressure tight and a bottle isn't necessarily?

Give me a science lesson here...

The carbonation level should be what you expect it to be for the thawed temperature. There's nowhere else for the CO2 to go but into the solution and the headspace.

paranode said:

The carbonation level should be what you expect it to be for the thawed temperature. There's nowhere else for the CO2 to go but into the solution and the headspace.

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Oh cool. So if its warmed up to 35-38F tonight when I get home, I'll have drinkable carbonated brew. Nice...

Will post results.

Happens to me several times every year.

I live in Northern MN. -20s, -30s, hell even -40s happen.

We put a keg on the deck for a party. It USUALLY all goes, but sometimes it doesn't. Get too druck to remember to bring it in after the part. Big Silver Keg of Frozen Beer. I know it can't be good for long term flavor, but at this point, we drink it anyway. I've even left some in the garage accidentally and have had 2-3 kegs of frozen beer. Its all good. No worries. I doubt Ill be submitting it to a homebrew contest anytime soon. But its still drinkable and no damage to kegs.

MNBugeater said:

no damage to kegs.

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Yeah, I'm just happy my cornies are OK (or at least appear to be OK) from the exterior...

I think I'll join ya.

I froze the remainder of my BluBery Wheat yesterday (or didn't notice until yesterday). I was pouring for Mothers Day and BAM! foam! I actually saw my thermometer down around 30 the other day but the water in my plastic bottle wasn't froze? (it was a cheap therm. and wondered how accurate it might be) Did find 2 of my Pale Ales 1 completly frozen and the other one just about but didn't even think to check my keg because it was still flowin!?! Anyways I thawed it out last night and hooked it back up this morning. It was a lot lighter in color and a bit sour? plus mine had pieces of blueberry floating around in it...probably from gettin shook up.

Don't worry tho...I am gonna make sure it is bad or good when I get home.

The funnier thing is that me & SWMBO were gonna have some of her friends over to finish it tonight...

guess I get to do that alone (if it's any good)

Didn't try this last night as it sounded like there was still some ice-slush in there... turned off the 4912 for the night and its all liquid now. Shook it this AM to mix and will test tonight.

Well my keg of extract Bitter is foamy as hell, but the Belgian Pale seems fine. Poured 2-3 pitchers of foam from Bitter tap and the first glass of Belgian Pale was fine... Any ideas?

Belgian Pale tastes fine from what I can tell. Cloudier than it was b/c I turned it over to remix, but otherwise I got belgian character in the first sample similar to before...

I think I am probably going to do away with the last 1-2g of extract bitter and just keg my peach-wit that I've been slacking on anyway.

Yeah...

Mine was done for...even I couldn't drink it!!! Oh well, there wasn't much in there anyways. Live-N-Learn to keep the sanyo turned down a bit more!

Guess that means I get to brew more!!!

Think I may need to retract my comment on the frozen kegs being fine... thawed for about a week now, remixed, and let to set for a few without drinking.

Pulled a pint last night and it appears to have sort of an oxidized flavor... Does this even make sense? The oxygen was purged and I never let any back in...

Ah well, it doesn't taste as good as it did IMO. I will try again tonight and hope my palette was just off last night.

I opened a 2.5 gallon keg this last weekend, after many fine glasses. I found about an inch of ice at the bottom. I didn't notice any difference in taste or carbonation. I have another 2.5 gallons in the fridge now, I hope it freezes just like the last one...the flavor was great!!

Beijing is in a historic period of record low temps. I left my kegs outside the past two years and they never froze. I left them out for the three weeks while I was away, and they are both frozen solid. I'll thaw them out and put gas back on them. I am only concerned about the dip tube, but it seems like it isn't a big deal.
Village idiot as well. Time for a kegerator build - Chinese Style