So after two weeks of primary and secondary fermentation, I racked my beer and put it in the fridge by mistake. It has been in there for about 5 days. It's my first brew. I took them out and put them in a cellar for now. Is my beer ruined?
Thanks in advance!
)(J
IPA 1Gallon Batch. Wyeast American Ale 1056
Topic bottle conditioning fermentation homebrew
Category Mac
I accidentally did this the first time I brewed. My beer turned out just fine. It took longer for the carbonation to take than it did without putting it in the fridge.
I highly doubt that immediately refrigerating your bottled beer (which was already fermented) damaged it at all. Cold temperatures "shock" yeast, basically making it inactive. So, the bottles probably have not yet carbonated (which is when the yeast eats the priming sugar).
Just take them out of the fridge, put them in a room somewhere, and within a few days they should be back to carbonating.
In a week or so, pick a test bottle and put it in the fridge, then crack and drink it when it's cold - should taste good (hopefully).
In the future skip the fridge after bottling (as you already know).
I take it from the title that you added the priming sugar and bottled the beer, then put it in the fridge?
If that's the case, you'll probably be OK. Just let the beer come up to room temperature and leave them alone for two weeks. Open one and see if it's carbonated. If it is, job well done. Relax and drink your beer.
Otherwise, the yeast was knocked back by the cold temperatures, and never came back. Buy some a packet of dry yeast. Open each bottle and add two or three grains of yeast. Re-cap and store at room temperature for two weeks. You should then have carbonated beer.
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