Emergency help required - yeast issue

[Sir-Rooty]

Hi guys

I was planning on running a brew today but just had a shock when opening my fridge.

I adjusted the control on the fridge to be lower yesterday and overnight it has started to freeze all my yeast PET bottles!

I have eight different strains in there - gutted.

I have never experienced this before - is the yeast still going to be viable?

Response this morning would be very very helpful!!!

[Jackthehat]

That's a bugger.

I suspect that the only thing to do is to culture some up and see what happens.

[Chug]

Yeast are hardy creatures and can be frozen so it should be ok, I would thaw it and warm to room temp and see how it looks.

[Sir-Rooty]

I'm thawing the English I was going to use today right now.
Looking as if I've three strains that did not freeze so fingers crossed they are unaffected.

Think I am going to defrost all of them and pitch into starters and see what happens.

[vacant]

Glycerine is added when yeast is frozen for storage. However, I believe this is to stop large ice crystals from forming which is probably a long-term issue.

I've never done that but I have frozen live bread yeast, breaking up a large block and mixing with flour before dividing into baking portions, wrapped in clingfilm. That worked; yeast thawed just fine even after many months.

I think you'll be lucky.

[nbpicklesno2]

Your yeast will be fine.

I've just done the same thing except I was trying to cold crash an American mild. Absolutely solid. Hopefully it'll be defrosted when I get back to work and I can get it into a conditioning container. Again, new (old) basic fridge, hot weather and guesswork.