Nearly frozen carboy

[dexter]

so my keezer shit the bed on me tonight and I now have a slushy mess, 23 litres of nearly frozen ipa. I'm assuming all I have to do is re pitch once it's all liquid again and I'm golden?

[GuingesRock]

That's an interesting question/scenario.

How far into the ferment was it? what kind of yeast? The yeast has been stressed. Could that have some positive effects? What negative effects, if any? I'd like to see how that turns out without re-pitching.

e.g. If it is US-05, you might get peach esters from the cold temperatures.

[jtmwhyte]

I've frozen a keg, but never a fermenting beer. I'd say the yeasties are shot. Thaw it out, check the gravity, and taste it IMHO

[dexter]

That's an interesting question/scenario.

How far into the ferment was it? what kind of yeast? The yeast has been stressed. Could that have some positive effects? What negative effects, if any? I'd like to see how that turns out without re-pitching.

e.g. If it is US-05, you might get peach esters from the cold temperatures.

I pitched Sunday night around 100 am it was us o5 by 1 pm Monday it was showing signs of fermenting and the temp was hovering around 17.5 ( set temp) between then and midnight it got down to -2.5. Not entirely frozen but slushy.

My guess is yeast are dead, are there any drawbacks to repItching?

[LiverDance]

Let it warm up and re pitch, there shouldn't be any ill effects from the additional yeast

[dexter]

Got home from work after letting it thaw and warm up over night and into the afternoon, it's chugging away on the original yeast... Should I pitch more or should I ride it out?

[GuingesRock]

Why re-pitch? It's working. By the time the re-pitched yeast gets going there wont be any sugar left for it. You may get some peach esters which would be nice.

Re-pitching, on the other hand, might be a backup kind of insurance and won't do any harm, so in that case ...why not.

[GAM]

Put in new yeast and reduce the risk of fermentation issues. Better to spend the $3 and have good beer.

Sandy

[LiverDance]

Put in new yeast and reduce the risk of fermentation issues. Better to spend the $3 and have good beer.

Sandy

[dexter]

I repitched elast night even though It seemed to be going great

[dexter]

After I repitched it fermented violently for 36 hours then died. Kegged it up last night and it's actually a really nice beer. And yes Mark there's a fair amount of peachy flavor, even my wife liked it!

[GuingesRock]

That's interesting. Because you had noticeable peach, I wonder if the first round of yeast was still viable and was the yeast that fermented it. You may have discovered a good way to stress 05 to get peach esters. That's what I was trying to do in this thread; http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... f=3&t=6709" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; but didn't succeed because I didn't have a way of getting it cold enough.

Some of the best brewing techniques are discovered by accident, like the hop bursting allegedly was, when the guy forgot to put in his hops and threw them all in at the last minute.