Frozen beer won't carbonate

[Barry]

So I didn't have any room in my keg fridge so stored a keg of American stout in my fermenting fridge, but the fridge was set really low and the keg froze.

Now it won't carbonate. I've tried 3 times to force carb for 24 hours – my standard failsafe technique. And it's been on pouring pressure just sitting in the keg fridge for 3 weeks. Nothing. Flat as a pancake.

System has no leaks, keg has been thawed completely for 3 weeks, it just will not gas up.

Is there a scientific explanation for this?

[Mark Weusten]

Wow that's strange. The interweb seems to think that thawed beer should take up CO2 no problem.....

[Barry]

Yeah that's what I mostly saw too.

I did find this thread but it yields no answers.

[Sam DT]

Wild punt...

Could the freezing have caused elements to split out & separate into layers in the keg? If you got a thin layer of CO2 resistant gunk at the top of the brew (maybe head retention type molecules) you might have yourself a nice diffusion / adsorption barrier in between the beer & CO2?

What happens if you give it a good shake up every couple of hours while carbonating?

Otherwise could you transfer to another keg to fully remove potential keg issues from the picture? 

[Barry]

Thanks Sam, all good points. Thought a similar thing myself.

I was reluctant to shake the keg as it's lovely and clear (albeit stout black).

It appears keg is slowly coming into condition, I bottled some last night for tonights Homebrew tasting and capped under foam. Much better mouthfeel now ;)

[Liam Callaghan]

Come and borrow a hand pump mate, problem solved.

making beers fizzy for the girls is all well and good but nothing beats real beer engine (I was going to say hand pump but that just sounded wrong haha)

Bottling tonight if you want to pop over