Froze my beer

[Kegstand]

Had some people over yesterday and they wanted to try my Vienna Lager home brew. So to chill it fast I threw 3 bottles in the freezer. Drank 2 last night (which they liked by the way, whoo hoo!) but forgot about one. This morning I open the freezer to grab my box of waffles and there sits a lonely, frozen bottle of beer.

Is it still good...or did I ruin it? It's sitting out in room temperature right now to thaw and I'm hoping it'll still be good because I hate to waste beer, especially home brew beer.

 

[devilishprune]

I'm surprised that it didn't explode, so count yourself lucky there.

I'm reasonably sure that you didn't ruin it. As long as you leave it closed and set it somewhere else for a while to get the carbonation back in check then you should be okay.

If it suits your fancy, you could let it thaw partially until it gets slushy, and then drink it like that. That way the flavors would be concentrated, sort of like an eisbock.

 

[JakeTheHopDog]

I did the same thing once. Make it your 4th or 5th beer and you'll never know the difference.

 

[Ricand]

I was putting cornies in the keezer and hung the wire thermoprobe out the top back to facilitate getting them in. Closed the lid while the thermoprobe was outside and the freezer ran constantly until I went to pull a beer and nothing came out. Cornies frozen solid, took two days sitting out to thaw them, and I didn't notice any flavor change at all.

 

[krelin]

Last time I did this, I also got lucky and failed to cause my beer to explode. The time before that, not so much. The taste of frozen beer is almost always ****.

 

[fanch75]

Oh man. I froze four bottles on Thursday night (same story - friends came over, threw in six to chill quickly, drank two, forgot about the other four). They didn't explode but they did fizz out a bit. I thawed them in pan of warm water. I'm drinking one now - it tastes pretty horrible but I refuse to throw out my own creation. I even drank my entire first batch, and it was infected & very sour.

 

[iron_city_ap]

I even drank my entire first batch, and it was infected & very sour.

If that doesn't motivate you to improve on how you brew, I don't know what will. Hardcore.

Haven't had frozen bottles in years (pre homebrewing), but it sucks. Glad to hear the beer made it through.

 

[devilishprune]

Something interesting happened to me the other day. I threw a cider in the freezer for SWMBO before she got home. I forgot about it, but then when I got it out, it was not frozen. Upon opening and her taking the first sip, it immediately started to crystallize in the bottle, which was pretty cool. Anyone know why this would happen?

 

[JRems]

Yes, that has happened to me before. The bottle is under pressure which makes it harder to freeze, the second the cap comes off and the pressure is released it freezes Instantly and it's quite cool to watch. There is a small temp window in which this will happen. I have only had it happen twice.

 

[iron_city_ap]

You mean like this? It has nothing to do with the cap being off. I think its more about the beer being supercooled (below freezing temp, but no contaminants for the ice to form on). When you open it or tap it, the CO2 released provides that contaminant and ice forms. The same thing happens with airplanes picking up ice in flight. Its rare, but it happens.

 

[devilishprune]

Cool. Thanks for the knowledge guys, I just had never had it happen before and was wondering what was up!

 

[specialkaye]

Mythbusters did a quick segment on this. Confirmed.

 

[mlarnold]

I dont know if this is old enough to be a zombie or not but had one of these like the video tonight, Im not sure how horrible it was cause I mixed it with a still liquid brew as it thawed, i couldnt really taste a difference. Either way, it was kind of an odd feeling to open a beer and have it freeze as it hit the glass.