Frozen Yeast Experiement

[Peter Smith]

Wasn;t intentional but I froze almost solid 2L of 007 and 1272 slurry,   I pitched 1L of the 007 into a stout about midnight last night after carefully unfreezing ,  found out I had the issue as I was brewing...    

Super oxygenated wort, lets see how hardy the little critters are....  probably not recommended.

[Eugene Black]

Any luck?

[Peter Smith]

yeah good ferment,  it was a massive pitch and the icy stuff was 95% solid...  probably not going to repitch this will taste the beer...  have not gravity tested yet but I am pretty convinced its ok and finished near target

Lesson learnt

[Greig McGill]

I'd imagine the freezing ruptured a fair few of the little critters. I'd be really interested to hear if there are noticeable autolysis (meaty/marmitey) notes in the fresh beer?

[Peter Smith]

Yeah I thought about that but didn't have too many options...... I had all the grains, not that many hops so was pretty invested by the time I found the frozen yeast...    007 is normally very clean for me, it should be very noticeable, I also used a lot less choc in this batch as I wanted a more roasty stout this time, tried to mash high at 69C but my uninsulated 50L tun struggled to hold temps (first use)   I will taste, gravity and report back tonight, mmmmm may have to add some boiled marmite and call it a Marmite stout...  or add some brett bugs and leave it for a year...   I try not to dump batches.

 

[Peter Smith]

can you freeze us05 dry yeast while dry?

[Greig McGill]

If there's no moisture at all remaining in the cells, it should be fine. I'm not sure if that's the case though. I suspect it'd still be a lot safer than freezing liquid yeast, given even liquid yeast can be safely frozen in a glycerol solution.