If you’re having one of those days again and you just realized that you left your beer in the fridge for too long again, then don’t fret. Everybody has experienced the let-down of throwing a few cold ones in the freezer to enjoy later and then forgetting about them and we understand how disheartening that experience can be after a long day of work.
So, Is frozen beer ruined beer? As long as your bottled or canned beer hasn’t shattered, and the seal hasn’t broken on the beer, then your beer will taste normal once you bring it back to an average temperature. So, most likely, a frozen beer isn’t ruined, and with some time and effort, a frozen beer can be enjoyed later in the day.
Since there isn’t a lot of information available on the Internet about how to save a frozen beer, we’ve gathered some information about this type of unexpected situation to assist you. Below we’ll discuss how to tell if your frozen beer is ruined or not, how freezing beer adds to the alcohol content, and how to unfreeze a frozen beer.
Saving Accidentally Frozen Beer
Trust me; we’ve all had those days. Last week, I woke up one morning only to realize I forgot my beers in the freezer again. While I don’t do this often, every time it happens, it feels like it’s too often. Since beer isn’t a cheap beverage to purchase, you’re probably wondering now if you can save your beer after it’s frozen.
As disheartening as the entire experience can be, you don’t need to worry. You can save accidentally frozen beer as long as a few conditions apply, and your beer can still potentially taste good enough to drink. Matt Meadows, who works as the draft beer quality ambassador for the Brewers Association and director of field quality at the New Belgium Brewing, provides us with a few ways to handle this problem.
Meadows has dealt with accidentally frozen beer issues in both his professional and personal life. According to Meadows, distributor warehouses and refrigerated trucks sometimes malfunction, meaning beer freezes while it is in transit to its destination.
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Check the Seal
According to Meadows, the biggest concern you’ll need to address when you accidentally leave your beer in the freezer for too long is checking on the seal. Whether you are using a beer can or bottle, if the beer becomes unsealed while it is frozen, it will no longer taste right.
Remember, when liquid freezes, it expands. That means there is more volume and pressure placed on the bottle or can, which can rupture the seal on the bottle or can. However, if your beer still appears sealed, then Meadows states your beer will taste just fine once you return it to its correct temperature.
“If the vessel stays 100-percent sealed and if the beer is allowed to return to a standard temperature, then Henry’s Law dictates that carbonation will go back into solution in the same place it was before,” Meadows commented.
On the other hand, if the seal is broken, you probably won’t enjoy your beer because you’ll miss out on that carbonation you enjoy. According to Meadows, “In that case, because you’ve pushed the CO2 out of solution, that’s the first thing to gas off. If your vessel has stayed sealed, your carbonation will be fine. If not, it’ll certainly be flat.”
How to Defrost a Frozen Beer
If you’ve frozen your beer in your freezer by accident, don’t worry. We’ve got the steps below to guide you on how to defrost a frozen beer.
- Get a Ziploc bag or container you can put your frozen beer into for protection. We suggest placing the beer in something so that you don’t wind up with a mess if the beer leaks.
- Put the beer in your fridge or some other area of your house that is cool. Don’t put the beer in warm regions. You don’t want your beer to thaw out too quickly, or the can or bottle might explode.
- Let the beer sit in the cool area until it is defrosted. It can take between 12-24 hours for this to happen, depending on what temperature you have set in your fridge.
Tip: Avoid running glass beer bottles under hot or warm water. If you do this, the glass might expand too quickly and break, and then you’ve lost your beer and your glass all in one fell swoop!
Drinking Previously Frozen Beer
If you’re planning on drinking previously frozen beer, then you’ll want to thaw the beer out before you drink it. That’s because if frozen beer isn’t thawed, the liquid you’ll drink first out of it will be straight alcohol. Since water stays frozen for longer than alcohol, what unfreezes first is the alcohol content of the beer.
If you wind up drinking just a few ounces of an unthawed beer, then you’ll also be getting straight alcohol, even if you only drink a little bit of it. So, it’s obviously best to avoid doing that and wait for your beer to thaw out completely.
Another reason you’ll want to let your beer thaw out is because you don’t want to drink a beer while it is in the “chill haze”. The chill haze refers to the opaque sheen a frozen beer gives as well as being able to see floating bits and chunks of the beverage in the beer. Your beer won’t taste or smell differently, but it’s unappetizing to drink a beer with pieces in it. Since most people don’t enjoy having chunks in their beer, let your beer thaw out before you drink it.
Does Freezing Beer Remove the Alcohol?
Another common question people have is if frozen beer removes the alcohol content.
Freezing beer doesn’t remove the alcohol in beer. As mentioned above, it can actually be a way to end up getting yourself drunk as fast as possible and increase the amount of alcohol you’ve got in your beer.
People that freeze beer to purposefully improve the alcohol content perform a process known as “jacking,” which is also called fractional freezing. Since alcohol does not freeze as fast as water, if you freeze beer, wine, or apple cider, you can up the amount of alcohol in your beverage quickly and easily.
This is not really a recommended practice though, and we would recommend following the steps below to avoid the frozen beer problem altogether.
How to Chill Beer Quickly Without Your Freezer
If you want to chill beer quickly and you want to avoid using your freezer, and the potential pitfalls associated with it in the future, then here are a few steps to help you out.
- First, start by putting a few bottles or cans into a bucket of salted ice water.
- Note that a bucket of salted ice water can also chill wine quickly.
- By using salt, you’ll be lowering your water’s freezing point. That means the water you’ll create will get colder than freezing temperatures.
- By doing this, your beer will chill quickly, and you won’t wind up leaving it in your freezer overnight.
And boom, just like that you’ll be able to quickly enjoy a few cold ones after a hard day’s work!
Final Thoughts
If you’ve had the misfortune of freezing your beer by accident, know you are not alone. We’ve all experienced this mishap and left our beers in the freezer overnight. However, now you know what you can do to save your beer and, better yet, what you can do to avoid making the same mistake again. So sit back, relax, and enjoy another cold one!
