Holy s-... my beer is frozen

So. I wanted to cold-crash my pale ale, so I stuck it in my beer fridge. This fridge has had fermenting beer in it before. However, this fridge is a bit weird because it has a freezer section in it that was removed, so it is basically a giant freezer. This hadn't been a problem before, but the other day I tried taking the face-plate off from the freezer section in order to find the thermostat. I didn't find it, so I put it back together, but I must have done something because my beer is frozen. Solid. Overnight. I just took the temperature.. it is 15F in there.

So long story short, has this ever happened to anyone? Is this batch shot? I am probably going to drink it still, but I'd have to imagine it is going to have a lot wrong with it. Is the alcohol going to have dissipated? Holy crap I can't believe this happened.

edit: well I did some more research and found Palmer's 'frozen lager' so anyways I think I will be okay. It is a little disconcerting having an entire beer frozen solid, and not just part of it, like Palmer's. I think it was a little silly of me to think the alcohol would evaporate, though.

If you let the ice melt back in, there shouldn't be any huge problems. You may have to pitch some more yeast if you want to carbonate naturally, I'm not sure how well they'll stand up to those temperatures, but it should taste fine.

If you remove the ice (which will be almost pure water) you'll end up with a stronger tasting, higher abv beer. I'm not sure of the legality of this, if I remember correctly some countries and states class it as distilling, making i illegal, while others don't.

time for a temp controller....

Billybob7 said:

If you remove the ice (which will be almost pure water) you'll end up with a stronger tasting, higher abv beer. I'm not sure of the legality of this, if I remember correctly some countries and states class it as distilling, making i illegal, while others don't.

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I wouldn't worry too much about the legality. They sell BMC "Ice" beers here where they essentially do the same thing, plus what you do in the comfort of your own home is your business. Maybe he just happened to make a high ABV beer by using a lot of fermentable sugars. As long as he doesn't try to sell it, I don't really see a legal issue.

i'd remove the ice. EISPA for the win!

I've frozen a beer almost (but not entirely) completely. It still carbed up fine. EDIT: I see you froze it solid. I think you may want to consider re-dosing with some dry yeast at bottling rates to be sure. It wasn't the tastiest thing I've brewed but I don't think it was because of the freezing. Also AFAIK freeze concentration is legal all over the US and is not "distillation".

SenorPepe said:

I've frozen a beer almost (but not entirely) completely. It still carbed up fine. EDIT: I see you froze it solid. I think you may want to consider re-dosing with some dry yeast at bottling rates to be sure. It wasn't the tastiest thing I've brewed but I don't think it was because of the freezing. Also AFAIK freeze concentration is legal all over the US and is not "distillation".

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Cool, thanks everybody for the re-assurance. I actually was thinking about adding dry yeast myself since I figured at the very least the yeast would have died. Cheers!

keesh said:

Cool, thanks everybody for the re-assurance. I actually was thinking about adding dry yeast myself since I figured at the very least the yeast would have died. Cheers!

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They should have. I think their cell walls burst? But I've been surprised by the hardiness of yeast enough times to not be confident... some of 'em could still be resurrected. I'd still play it safe and re-dose.

SenorPepe said:

They should have. I think their cell walls burst? But I've been surprised by the hardiness of yeast enough times to not be confident... some of 'em could still be resurrected. I'd still play it safe and re-dose.

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Yeah I didn't mention that I had a starter in there as well waiting to be pitched later today, so I think I am going to try and make a new starter out of my frozen starter as sort of a test to see how viable they are after being frozen. It probably isn't really worth the risk though, since if I bottled it and there wasn't enough conditioning then it'd be a huge amount of effort to re-pitch into each bottle.

I froze a batch of pum king clone just before thanksgiving because I wanted it on tap for the feast - it was thawed and ready to go a day or so later. It was one of the best beers I have ever made.

just let it thaw and come back to temp. it will be fine.