Uh oh, I made a 5-gallon Beercicle

[Geoff]

Sunday night I kegged and force-carbed a batch of Dead Guy Ale (ABV 6.5%). It was a perfect 30º F outside that night, so rather than carry the keg and tank downstairs to the kegerator, I just put it on the front porch.

Well, that was the night that big winter storm came through, and the temps dropped to about 10º. Didn't realize how cold it was until about 11am Monday, and brought it in. It wasn't frozen solid, but there was a lot of floating ice in it.

I now have it in a pantry that stays at about 40º, and as of this morning there was still some floating ice chunks at the top. When she thaws, is it still going to be drinkable? Did this prevent proper carbonation? How much and what kind of damage does a beer suffer by being frozen at this juncture?

Stoopid Michigan weather...

 

[MarzBock]

Heh.. you could have pulled the ice out and had a really strong beer.

I honestly have no idea about if things are okay, but I do know that this was a common practice for monks to increase the strength of their beers. Let 'em freeze outside (just like you did) and pull out the ice in the morning. Of course Ethanol doesn't like to freeze, so it concentrates in the liquid.

I bet it's fine.

 

[CampfireBrewingCo]

Being that you are kegging it's probably fine. If you had planned to naturally carb then it might be a problem.

 

[skibumdc]

You've just made Dead Guy ICE beer

 

[mkwasnie]

You've just made Dead Guy ICE beer

Wow, if this is half as good as Natural ICE, I think you'll have a winner!

 

[IffyG]

It'll be perfectly fine. I did my first cold crash a few weeks ago with my Pumpkin beer. I was using my old college minifridge and figured it would be fine without the temperature controller, so I put it in and went out of town for 5 days. Came home at went to keg it and found a nearly solid block of beer in my 10* fridge. After three days it was thawed and I kegged it. The beer is CRYSTAL clear, nothing in suspension at all. No need to worry.

 

[motobrewer]

eis-pseudo-maibock!

i'd really like to try to make an eis-something, but i don't have the balls to throw a keg of beer out in the cold like that.

 

[JewBrew]

If you read John Palmer's How To Brew he had the same problem. Just slowly defrost and pitch.

 

[Geoff]

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys. I'll be serving it at a dinner party Saturday, I'll let you know how it came out.

 

[jfr1111]

No reason why it would change anything really, the ice will just melt back into the beer. Once it's in bottles, you risk cracking and spills, so that's why you need to be careful about beer and freezing, but if you plan on force carbing, you'll be fine.

If you want it to carbonate naturally, just add some dry yeast with your priming solution.

 

[Geoff]

Well, the party went off without a hitch, and the keg was dry by 11pm. Given we were also offering wine (we whacked two magnums of Lindeman's Chard) and peppermint martoonies, (we wacked two magnums of SKY Vodka and half a bottle each of Pepp Shcnapps and Creme de Menth...yeah, it was a helluva party)...I'd say just by consumption, the beer was well-received. Thanks for the comforting words, all!

Geoff