Accidentally Froze my Beer

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culaslucas

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Location
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So ya, I was bottling 20 gallons today (lot of bottles) and it's about 4 degrees outside. I had never crash cooled before and I thought I'd REALLY crash cool so I sat one of the 5g buckets outside.

It's frozen now. Should I just let it re-thaw gently and bottle it later? Will enough yeast be killed to worry about carbonation problems?
 
I was crash cooling an overcarbonated (stoopid mistake), and left it in the freezer way to long. Did not end up well.
 
I crash cooled A brown ale in my keezer. Temp was A little to low, I turned up the temp and waited A few days and kegged it. It was fine.
 
Dumb question about yeast viability. IF the fermenter were to have frozen wouldn't there be some concern that the ice crystals would lyse the yeast cells creating a situation similar to autolysis? Probably wouldn't matter in a small package (bottle) where the cell count isn't as high, but in a fermenter (pail/carboy) it seems like there could be some repurcussions. I'm still a newcomer and am just curious.

Thanks,
Patrick
 
i just put my fermenter outside tonight to cool it off a bit. planning to bottle tomorrow night.
low is supposed to be 28*, but it would take a long time to freeze five gallons solid, especially a 6% ABV 5 gallons.
now i am thinkin i should bring it inside in the morning.
 

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