Repitching yeast before bottling

[mdwmonster]

I'm having a thought and doing some early research.

I'm thinking that around Feb or March I might try to lager a beer in my garage. Lows should be in the mid-20s; highs in the mid-40s.

After reading several threads, it seems like this should work fine, with the biggest issue being the beer freezing. My concern is that if the beer freezes, it will kill the yeast. I don't think that those temps will freeze the beer, but stupid St. Louis weather being what it is, it might be 30s and 40s all week, then teens for another week.

After all this research, here is what I'm left wondering:

1. If I lager in the garage, should I just go ahead and pitch an extra pack of yeast - something neutral like Notty - before bottling just to be safe - should a freeze have killed off the fermenting yeast?

2. If the beer does freeze, and it does kill the yeast, is there any point in lagering it after the freeze? In other words, if the beer freezes solid on day 7 of the lagering, is there any gain in leaving it out there for another 3 weeks?

Thanks for any information.

 

[Runyanka]

You could get a brew belt, that way the beer would stay warm when it drops in the 20's.
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4078

 

[-TPM-]

Adding the Notty wouldn't hurt but I doubt you'll kill the yeast. A sudden drop in temp might make them drop out of suspension though, so you may need to shake them up.

If the beer freezes you biggest worry is the fermentor breaking. If once defrosted (no point leaving it frozen for 3 weeks ) it doesn't continue to ferment you'd want to pitch extra yeast. From what I've read you may get off flavors, which usually subside after a few weeks aging.

You might want to consider buying something to keep it at temp for the future like Thermawrap.

 

[mdwmonster]

Thanks for the replies.

I thought about a brew belt, but was worried that it would give me too much of a temp increase - but I guess I could get an extension cord with a dimmer and adjust it. That plus a wrap in heavy blankets should help protect it.

I'm not worried about breaking the fermentor, I was going to ferment in my basement - with a swamp cooler I can get down into the low 50s easily. I was going to rack to a secondary and lager in that - I'm not worried about that breaking either, as I have an extra 6-gallon Better Bottle I was going to use - plenty of room for it to expand if it does freeze.