Frozen in Carboy during Cold Crash: Re-Pitch before Bottling?

[Dizamn]

I know this has been discussed before and I see various responses. I would like to outline my problem and my proposed next action to attempt to fix it.

My beer has completed fermentation according to my gravity readings. I attempted to cold crash it in water and ice bucket and it went from the high 70s yesterday morning to freezing this morning. (Texas weather) The carboy is fine but more then 80% of the beer is frozen: mix of ice and unfrozen beer. I was hoping to throw in some gelatin before bottling.

I am wondering now if I should pitch again before bottling as I am concerned about carbonation. Most people seem to say I should but there isn't a lot of information on how much yeast. I was thinking of getting a yeast starter going while the beer thaws out (half a packet?) and pitching it tomorrow or so or adding yeast directly to the carboy. And then adding the gelatin in a day or two afterwards. OR should I do the gelatin first or scrap the gelatin altogether? Any advice would be helpful.

And yes. I did read John Palmer's incident: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-6.html
But this was during cold crashing after fermentation for an ale, not a lager. Maybe it still applies? I don't know.

 

[trentm]

I know this has been discussed before and I see various responses. I would like to outline my problem and my proposed next action to attempt to fix it.

My beer has completed fermentation according to my gravity readings. I attempted to cold crash it in water and ice bucket and it went from the high 70s yesterday morning to freezing this morning. (Texas weather) The carboy is fine but more then 80% of the beer is frozen: mix of ice and unfrozen beer. I was hoping to throw in some gelatin before bottling.

I am wondering now if I should pitch again before bottling as I am concerned about carbonation. Most people seem to say I should but there isn't a lot of information on how much yeast. I was thinking of getting a yeast starter going while the beer thaws out (half a packet?) and pitching it tomorrow or so or adding yeast directly to the carboy. And then adding the gelatin in a day or two afterwards. OR should I do the gelatin first or scrap the gelatin altogether? Any advice would be helpful.

And yes. I did read John Palmer's incident: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter10-6.html
But this was during cold crashing after fermentation for an ale, not a lager. Maybe it still applies? I don't know.

If you decide to add more yeast and you feel a need to add gelatin, let me suggest adding the gelatin first and let it clear a few days. Then add your yeast at bottling along with the priming sugar. Here is a link that will help with yeast amounts: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/AdvancedBottleConditioning.pdf

 

[BigFloyd]

Greetings fellow Texan.

Since it froze to the point of ice crystals forming, that could have caused yeast death. I'd want to add about 1/5th of a packet of a neutral dry ale yeast into the bottling bucket.

Since I typically cold-crash my batches for a week before kegging or bottling and am very careful about transfer, I've found that the use of gelatin doesn't make a significant difference.

 

[Dizamn]

Thanks for the assistance. Since I will be adding the yeast, I may go ahead and add gelatin to give it a chance to clear up a bit more over the next day or so. I am going to re-pitch with 1/4 of a packet of Danstar Belle Saison Dry Yeast directly to the beer either in the carboy or the bottling bucket. I will then immediately prime and bottle. Thanks, again. I will let you know how it turns out.