Learned a lesson today: Flot-it dip tubes do not like ice :D

[sixstring]

So my beer was cold enough it iced up. Didn't realize it was so cold in the kegerator. Turned up the temp some now.
Thought my floating dip tube was clogged, as I wasn't getting anything through the beer line from the tap. So had to take a look inside (so much for my oxygen free transfer i did yesteday ). Pulled the tube up and the filter end was covered in ice.
Soon as I let it melt off, popped it back in, sealed it up, gassed it up to serving and it poured fine again.

Anyone else ever had this problem? If yes, is there a floating dip tube you recommend that won't get this problem occur? Or do I just need to make sure I don't drop the temp too low on the brew?

 

[mashdar]

I find I don't like beer as much after a partial freeze. Can't say what's wrong with it, but it seems to lose some body and flavor.

If you're keeping the beer at ~31F or higher it should be OK unless you're crashing with a thermowell.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I don't think the floating dip tube is the problem that needs a solution. Rather, I would suggest that the freezing of the beer is the problem that requires a solution. My fermentation fridges can only crash down to 39-40F and that seems to get the job done. Adjusting your target crash temp upward a couple degrees shouldn't affect the beer's quality and it will eliminate the frozen beer problem.

 

[lumpher]

I had a little bit of Blonde left that froze recently, even though it was set to 38. I have the standard floating diptube that comes with the Oxebar 20l. I thawed out the whole thing by leaving it out for a day, rechilled, and it worked fine again, too.

 

[firerat]

I don't think the floating dip tube is the problem that needs a solution. Rather, I would suggest that the freezing of the beer is the problem that requires a solution. My fermentation fridges can only crash down to 39-40F and that seems to get the job done. Adjusting your target crash temp upward a couple degrees shouldn't affect the beer's quality and it will eliminate the frozen beer problem.

I was just about to post the same thing.

I've frozen more beers than I want to admit as big my fermentation chamber and keezer are just chest freezers with temperature controllers. Before i figured out what i was doing, i had the the temp probe too high in the freezer which led to me freezing the bottom of my chamber. It might be 35 up top but like 20 on the bottom. Live and learn.

And I've accidentally, on a few occasions, managed to knock the probe out of the freezer and created 5 gallons of rock solid beer.

As for floating dip tubes, I don't think one will freeze and more or less than any other.

 

[marc1]

So my beer was cold enough it iced up. Didn't realize it was so cold in the kegerator. Turned up the temp some now.
Thought my floating dip tube was clogged, as I wasn't getting anything through the beer line from the tap. So had to take a look inside (so much for my oxygen free transfer i did yesteday ). Pulled the tube up and the filter end was covered in ice.
Soon as I let it melt off, popped it back in, sealed it up, gassed it up to serving and it poured fine again.

Anyone else ever had this problem? If yes, is there a floating dip tube you recommend that won't get this problem occur? Or do I just need to make sure I don't drop the temp too low on the brew?

If you went through the trouble to do an O2 free transfer, I hope you purged it thoroughly after closing it up (13-15 times at 30 PSI).

In the future if something happens and it gets too cold, let the whole keg thaw rather than opening it up.

 

[sixstring]

Maybe I explained it a little poorly.
The floatit wasn't the thing that froze. But it got cold enough that all the ice on the top of the beer was stuck to it when I was trying to pull a pint from it. So that clogged up the little mesh filter on the floating dip tube. That's what stopped the beer flowing. The whole keg wasn't frozen up, just had some ice on the top of the beer was all.
I adjusted my fridge temp so it should be fine now.

If you went through the trouble to do an O2 free transfer, I hope you purged it thoroughly after closing it up (13-15 times at 30 PSI).

In the future if something happens and it gets too cold, let the whole keg thaw rather than opening it up.

No, I didn't purge it again, but I will now. Thanks for that tip.
And yup, I just need to make sure I keep the fridge temp at 40 from now on instead of 38. And I know now if it happens again to just pull the keg out and let it warm up some. Which is easily done here.

 

[mashdar]

For purging, the two most popular methods that don't use 3 lbs* of CO2 are: push out a keg full of starsan, or let fermentation gas slowly purge the keg. The fermentation gas method is a favorite around here.

*Review of purge gas weight
21L/keg * 2g/L/atm * 2 atmg * 15 cycles / 455g/lb = 2.77lb. Yikes.