Froze my Beer! Whats the ABV Now?

[gnutz2]

My pale ale finished fermenting a few days ago at 1.010 from an OG of 1.048 so i put it in the fridge along with 100 g of cascade hops, also turned the fridge down low to make the yast drop out.

Got everything ready to bottle last night, started draining the FV which was a bit slow to start and eventually blocked (sometimes happens when i dry hop anyway) i started it again and after about another 5 litre it blocked again. Anyway i struggled on and the flow stopped about 10 litres short in my bottling bucket, thinking this was strange i climbed up into the fridge (i have a very high fridge) to look in the FV to find a load of frozen hops and beer (i'll post a piccy up later).

I bottled the recoverd beer and took a hydro reading to see what was going on, the beer now has a FG of 1.015, tried a little and it tasted a little alcaholic but still ok.

I know the ABV from 1.048 to 1.010 is 5.1% but does anyone know the ABV now?

I guess i'll remember not to turn the fridge down too low next time.

Cheers.

[DerbyshireNick]

The freezing point of alcohol is lower than that of water, is it possible any "ice" left in there is made up of wort minus the alcohol which wouldn't freeze? hence more alcohol in what you drained off? *uneducated random guess alert*

[gnutz2]

Well i'd say i lost about 7 litres of beer and there was about 22 to start,

so 1% of 22l is 0.22l, so 5.1% is 1.122l

1.122l of alcahol is concertrated into 15l of beer,

7.48% by my reconing

[micromaniac]

i think this is how they get the strength in iced beer, they slightly freeze so that the water starts to crystalize ,draw off the crystals ..job done.... less volume more alcohol

[Brotherton Lad]

Is that an FG of 1015 at 20 C or when it was still very cold?

[gnutz2]

Is that an FG of 1015 at 20 C or when it was still very cold?

I let the sample warm up first.

When it all thawed out there was more like 5 litres left in the fv so its maybe more like 6.5% abv instead.

[Brotherton Lad]

Odd. If you'd left some frozen water behind and the alcohol came through the tap, the FG should be lower. Unless carbonation is lifting the hydrometer higher.

Did you measure the residue left in the FV when it melted?

[gnutz2]

Bugger, just rememberd i took the sample from the bottling bucket, this explains the 5 points higher gravity (125g of priming sugar in 15l of beer).

[mooj]

The FG will be higher regardless of the priming sugars, as the alcohol, sugar and flavour will all be concentrated in what you drained. I reckon your estimated abv is about right, although it is likely to be a bit less than this as I'm sure some alcohol would have remained with the ice.

Anyone one tried beer schnapps? My friends and I used to do it with special brew, not recommended, evil stuff

[gnutz2]

Just drinking a bottle now and it's good.

It was dry hopped with 100g of cascade and its quite resiny(which i've never had off cascade before), has a lot of body (i used a lot of crystal and carapils tho) and has a very very slight warming aftertaste. It's definately going to get a lot better.

Its got me thinking really, would a 6% abv froze beer taste the same as a 6% beer using malt?