My Carboy Froze!

[Arpolis]

Hahaha

As with most of North America in general we here in Oklahoma are getting record low temps. I have had all sorts of things to worry about over the last few days and just a second ago I realized... I have a 5 gallon carboy with some 1+ year old ginger mead in it out in the shed! I have been cold crashing it over the last 10 days or so because I back sweetened with some honey and it was not clearing as fast as I would like. I carried it in and it is pure slushy lol. I need to check my records but it should be 13%-14% ABV by itself but now I have some concentrated gingery alcohol... Hmmmmmmm I could not keep my self from trying some and damn this is good stuff. Soooo smooth and sweet/gingery. Once it is thawed and if clear I am definitely bottling this up.

Has anyone else ever accidentally frozen a carboy?

 

[JLP]

I partially froze a beer once. During a heat wave I had to put my fermenting beer in my spare fridge, and play with it every hour to get it to stay at fermentation temps. I came back from work, and found it starting to freeze. It doesn't hurt the beverage really it seemed, but it sure as hell kills a good portion of the yeast!

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Eismead! Don't let it thaw, you have just successfully freeze distilled your mead... the ice is water, the rest is concentrated mead. If it is delicious and smooth you should bottle it, might be around 20% now!

 

[Arpolis]

Eismead! Don't let it thaw, you have just successfully freeze distilled your mead... the ice is water, the rest is concentrated mead. If it is delicious and smooth you should bottle it, might be around 20% now!

Lol oh I know! But I am more of a casual drinker and the 13ish% it is at without freeze distilling is enough for me. She is already thawed now so already done. Just thought I would taste the concentrated stuff out of curiosity. Was good but sure was enough alcohol for me to not want a full glass.

 

[stonecutter2]

Eismead! Don't let it thaw, you have just successfully freeze distilled your mead... the ice is water, the rest is concentrated mead. If it is delicious and smooth you should bottle it, might be around 20% now!

Eismead - that's a great idea

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Eismead - that's a great idea

Could be a whole new style...

 

[WVMJ]

Arpolis, So did the freezing help clear it up or is it still cloudy? WVMJ

 

[Arpolis]

Arpolis, So did the freezing help clear it up or is it still cloudy? WVMJ

Well yes and no. It seemed to create denatured proteins from the honey I used to sweeten the mead and they are slowly falling out of the mead. If you watch it it looks like it is standing still and nothing is moving. It is like a lot of floaty gelatin looking bits all through the mead. But coming back to it every half hour or so I can see that the proteins are just falling super slowly. So it is clearing and should be great either tonight or tomorrow.