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I had three more days of bottle-conditioning to go on one batch of beer, yet I accidentally put them all in the refrigerator instead of a different batch that was finished.

Can I just pull them out of the refrigerator? Will they continue to bottle condition and carbonate even though I have already cold crashed them?

Ben Mosher
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Matthew Moisen
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I can't speak from experience, but by putting the bottles in the fridge, the yeast isn't dead, merely dormant or slowed down. I'd take them out, let them warm up to room temperatures, hold them upside down while swirling to get the slurry off the bottoms of the bottles, turn them right-side up, and store them back away again. As long as you didn't go too low in temperature (near freezing), I'd think you'd be fine.

Scott
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It's ok, you can still pull them out and things will be fine. I would venture to say that it's pretty unnecessary- you didn't kill the yeasts, you just slowed it down like Scott said. Remember the general rule: life begins at 40. So long as your liquid isn't under 40 F or above 140 F, your yeasts are alive.

ajdigregorio
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    The 140F is incorrect for max tolerable temperature for (both ale and lager) yeast. Even in the mid-80's the yeast will begin to mutate, and stress out. Get into the the low-to-mid 90's and it's toast. – Scott Jul 23 '13 at 22:23
  • @scott I don't doubt you, but I'm curious as to where you've seen that... I agree that yeast will not produce good flavors above 80, but my point was that yeast is actually able to stay alive at a large range of temperatures. – ajdigregorio Jul 24 '13 at 18:08
  • Actually... From what I'm reading, I believe I am incorrect, and you are right (how often does that happen on the internet!?). Upon digging, more and more evidence points to 140F. I can't imagine the yeast is doing anything other than stewing past 90-100F, but come 140, and it'll officially get died. – Scott Jul 25 '13 at 00:04