How to Thaw a Frozen Keg?

[whovous]

I kegged a blonde ale about 10 days ago, carbed it for a few days, and then had to repurpose my chest freezer as a fermentation chamber for a newly brewed batch.

Luckily, or so I thought, I'd just come into possession of an old mini-fridge. I put my keg and CO2 bottle inside, turned the temp down as low as it would go, and went away for five or six days. No idea why, but I thought the fridge could not get cold enough to matter.

False.

My tap line was frozen solid. There was beer in my gas line. And the surface of my three gallon keg measures about 26F roughly 20 minutes after taking teh keg out of the fridge. There is also a thin layer of ice on the outside of my keg. I take all of this to mean the beer is frozen solid, or close to it.

My reading on this site tells me my beer is probably OK. It may be more clear, which is a benefit with this style. The yeast may or may not be dead, but I do not plan to bottle, just to carb, so that is not an issue either.

I want to completely thaw this beer, and then chill it and serve it tomorrow night. Is this possible? Room temp is about 78F, or I could put it somewhere cooler. I could even put it back in the fridge either unplugged or set at a high setting (of course, I've demonstrated I have no idea what the settings on this old fridge mean.

How long should this take to thaw, and how can I be sure it is fully thawed without taking the lid off of the keg? Any particular procedures I should try or avoid?

 

[mongoose33]

What you likely have is a block of ice inside that keg. Any sloshing when you tip it back and forth?

If not, then the only good way to thaw it is to put it in a vat of warmish water, then repeat when the keg chills the water. How long? I don't know.

You have one other issue: if the beer wasn't carbed before putting it in the mini fridge, and you were doing "set and forget," then it's not going to be fully carbed. So not only do you have to thaw it, and then chill back to whatever serving temp you want, you have to carb it the rest of the way as well.

 

[whovous]

It was at least somewhat carbed, though I guess it depends in part on just how long it took to freeze.

No sloshing last time I tried. The keg is pretty close to full. Will put it in warm water now

 

[whovous]

It thawed much faster than expected, and I wound up over-warming it and returning it to the fridge. It should be OK by tonight. Hope the new Inkbird arrives today!

 

[mongoose33]

It thawed much faster than expected, and I wound up over-warming it and returning it to the fridge. It should be OK by tonight. Hope the new Inkbird arrives today!

Are you able to draw beer from it? I'd be surprised if a 3-gallon block of beer ice would melt that fast, but maybe the alcohol in the beer helped get it past the phase change.

Anyway, glad it worked out. Post on how the beer ended up tasting, if you would.

 

[whovous]

I was surprised how fast it melted as well, but the beer came out warm (~80F), so it could not be sharing the keg with a block of ice.

As for taste, I don't think the freeze affected anything at all. The problem is that it was undercarbed before and is still undercarbed now, and I think getting the carbing right really affects the enjoyment of this beer. It didn't help that I screwed up on my recarbing this AM. I think it will be a very nice lawnmower beer once I get it carbed properly.

I have a new problem with this fridge, but that is a subject for another post.