So, it froze. What s next

DanMalleck

I have been having the worst brew days this year. Today's misadventure: I have a chest freezer with a temperature controller from Johnson Controls. I was using it for fermenting a brown ale I brewed a few weeks ago (and which I could not for the life of me get to chill below 70 until I set up the freezer/fermenter). Yesterday I was moving some stuff around the room where the freezer is located and I removed the temperature probe to get at something behind the freezer. Then I left it out as I got back to doing what I was doing.
Today as I began to set up to bottle, I went to the freezer and guess what? Yes. The beer was frozen solid. A 3.5 gallon beercicle.
So, I know I can thaw it and I know the yeast is dead. But if I hydrate a pack of dry yeast and throw it in before bottling, could that allow for bottle conditioning? Or should I make a starter so the yeast is ready to go?
Or should I just resolve myself to have a flat beer (which I will call a real ale because I have to salvage it somehow)?

AlexKay

Was it done fermenting? If you're just worried about yeast for bottle conditioning, a pack of dry will do perfectly for you. (You could use CBC-1, you could use whatever your main fermentation used, you could use anything.)

DanMalleck

Yes it was done. I was about to bottle it.

AlexKay

No worries then!

DanMalleck

Ok thanks. I read somewhere else that some yeast might still be alive but I'm not crossing my fingers on that one. This is like extreme cold crashing.

hotbeer

Yeast survives freezing. It's the other end of the thermometer that will kill them.
If you are leery though, then adding most any dry yeast at anywhere from .07 to 1.3 grams per gallon of beer to your priming solution will probably ensure you won't have an issue due to lack of yeast.
Use less yeast if you are carbonating to lower Vols and more yeast if adding a lot of sugar for higher Vols.

DanMalleck

Ok thanks. I'll just rehydrate a pack of something similar (Probably Nottingham yeast) and pitch with the corn sugar when I am bottling. Or should I pitch into the carboy earlier and let it get used to it?

hotbeer

Well for 3.5 gallons, don't use a full 11 gram pack. 1 to 2 grams will probably be more than enough.
As for pitching it into the carboy, I wouldn't. You'll be rehydrating it with nothing to feed on. I suppose that wouldn't be any different than rehydrating in plain water, but it's not something I've ever done.
But then again if you are just adding dry corn sugar into the beer without first mixing it with some water, then I'd go for adding it directly to the beer and giving it a few minutes to rehydrate before mixing in the dry sugar.

DanMalleck

Sorry I should have clarified I'd rehydrate the yeast before pitching as normal. I've also added my corn sugar to water and boiled.