Frozen beer thawed out, now full of crud.

[EricS]

We have had a pretty crazy winter this year, tons of snow and lots of extremely cold days. Since I am new to kegging I don't have a kegerator yet so I just store the keg in the garage. With a few really cold nights my keg froze, some beer even foamed up and came out of the valve. After the freeze the temperature in the garage went back up and the keg thawed out. I went to pull a beer and I had all sorts of crud floating around in the beer and throughout the head. I poured four 24 ounce beers and all had junk floating around in them. I held it up to a light and saw even more that was a lighter color. Any ideas what happened?? Is this beer toast?

Thanks,
E

 

[pjj2ba]

I would suspect the crud is protein. Most proteins - I'm talking soluble ones here, not haze - do NOT like to be frozen and will denature upon thawing. In the lab, glycerol is commonly added to protein extracts if they are going to be frozen in order to stabilize them.

Soluble beer proteins do play a role in taste and mouthfeel. If the beer still tastes OK to you, drink it and enjoy it. I'd let it settle for a couple of days then the first pint or two after that may have some crud in it, but hopefully after that it will be clear.

 

[Beerlord]

if it wasn't secondaried and ust kegged it might be trub that didn't settle out in teh primary and when it frooe it got all mixed up, let it sit for a few days and see if it drops out

 

[EricS]

Thanks for the reponses. I did put it into a secondary so I doubt that it is trub. As for letting it sit and trying it again, well that was my plan but it FROZE again. Man this winter is a killer, I need a kegerator!!!!

 

[Beerlord]

Thanks for the reponses. I did put it into a secondary so I doubt that it is trub. As for letting it sit and trying it again, well that was my plan but it FROZE again. Man this winter is a killer, I need a kegerator!!!!

I feel you pain, had my O'fest lagering in the garage and forgot about it with our sub zero nights last few week, went ot get the snowblower and found it. Luckily my car boy didn't crack.