Stopping beer from freezing in the garage

[MikeBusby]

I am just about to cold crash my beer before bottling in a couple of days. The outside temperature is pretty ideal for it (1-3C) except that it is going to get to -3C overnight. So, I have 3 questions for you ...

1. How much warmer is a garage typically than outside?
2. How many degrees improvement might I see if I wrap the FV with a blanket ‘ sleeping bag?
3. What happens if the beer does freeze? Would it be ruined?

 

[Satellitemark]

I have all my bottled beer on metal shelving in my unheated uninsulated workshop and have had no problems with my beer I think it went down to -4 here last night.
Whenever I get a beer from the workshop it's colder than ones in my fridge !

Don't forget that the stronger the beer the less chance of it freezing as alcohol has a lower freezing point than water.

If it went down to -10 I would probably take action to insulate the beer , until then I'm not worried.

Mark

 

[johncrobinson]

When i was a kid my dad used a paraffin lamp in the garage where all his beers/wines were stored (in glass so a burst would have been bad.)
Temperatures could easily fall to circa -20c.Deisel used to freeze solid in the fuel lines.

Paraffin lamps have long since gone out of fashion,But how about those low wattage electric greenhouse heaters ?? They are cheap to run/buy and would only need to be on during the very coldest spells.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

The best way to stop it freezing is to drink it.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

When i was a kid my dad used a paraffin lamp in the garage where all his beers/wines were stored (in glass so a burst would have been bad.)
Temperatures could easily fall to circa -20c.Deisel used to freeze solid in the fuel lines.

Paraffin lamps have long since gone out of fashion,But how about those low wattage electric greenhouse heaters ?? They are cheap to run/buy and would only need to be on during the very coldest spells.

My mum put a small paraffin lamp in our outside toilet to stop it freezing.

 

[BrewMeHappy]

I'd say your garage is probably likely to be 1 or 2 degrees different to outside. It's a good pint though, I'm going to have a look in a bit to see the difference out of curiosity.

You could wrap the FV with something, I used to use an old gilet which fitted perfectly. The volume of liquid will take a good while to change temperature compared to the ambient temperature too.

I'm not sure about freezing, but it probably wouldn't be ideal.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Tube heaters have very low running costs so get the biggest you can afford -

Do you know that based on a cost of 14.5p per kWh a single 60W (1 foot) tube heater cost just 6.47 per month to run based on the heater being left on 24hrs a day for a whole month!
Tubular heaters are available in 6 sizes, 300mm through to 1800mm, with the option of combining two heaters side by side to double the output required you can be pretty sure that there is a solution to suit your needs.

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[Obadiah Boondoggle]

The best way to stop it freezing is to drink it.

I was just going to say that, but you beat me to it - it must be my age