Frozen cans = diminished quality?

It's been my experience that beers that are partially frozen will definitely taste worse. You'll probably need input from some of the BAs that are more into the science behind it than I am, but I would never let a beer freeze. With that being said, I think the type of beer being frozen will influence how badly the taste is affected; for hoppy beers I certainly wouldn't do it.

 

I had several cans and bottles freeze in a beer fridge mishap a couple months ago. I let the ones that didn't pop thaw in the fridge, and they were fine. No noticeable difference.

 

Personally have never noticed a difference from an accidently frozen can but I make a point to not trade in the winter to avoid this very problem.

 

The real problem with freezing is the can / bottle bursting! That aside though, the most likely thing you will notice is precipitates forming.

In wine making, they often cold stabilize wines to precipitate out excess tartaric acid, and that then settles out of the final wine - they do this just above freezing point, and one of the big problems with wine is that if you ever let it get colder than the temp. it was stabilized at, then you will get more tartaric acid precipitating out which impacts the flavor.

I am not up on my beer chemistry, but it would not surprise me if there were similar compounds that would precipitate out and affect the flavor of the beer. I would say that if you pour the beers and there is a lot of precipitate then something has happened (but it might also just be yeast cells). Either way, I would drink them up - it certainly won't cause anything that is harmful for you, and I imagine most negative flavors would take a bit of time to develop.

 

I've put beers in the freezer to quick chill and forgot about them. There was no noticeable impact on the flavor after thawing them, so as long as they don't break they'll probably be ok.

 

I'm in NH too have had some trades sit on the porch at 0 degrees with no ill effects once they thawed out. They didn't freeze solid but were definitely slushy when I unwrapped them.

 

Yes but better extreme cold than extreme warmth

 

I've had several bottles and can freeze in my fridge over the years. I just leave them out for a day (room temperature) and I have yet to notice any difference. That even includes a side-by-side with frozen and non-frozen Odell IPAs.

 

Let them thaw completely before opening and I don't think there will be any issues.

 

I've had growlers freeze on multiple occasions (my old fridge was a bit temperamental) and when they thawed, virtually all carbonation had been lost.

 

As others have said, freezing will only really induce the formation of precipitates. Aside from seeing fuzzy clumps in the bottom of your container, most (if not all) styles will not be noticably impacted by freezing. Carbonation may be an issue, but the flavor itself should be there (slightly muted hop aromas are something I've noticed in the past). From personal experience, I've found that letting the beer slowly warm up to room temp or slightly below (50-60 degrees) before tossing the beer back into the fridge gives the best results.

 

CO2 will collect in the headspace when the beer freezes.
the only trick is to let the beer sit cold for about a day. the CO2 will get reabsorbed into the liquid. if you open too soon the gas will escape into atmosphere and your beer will be flat.

as far as the detrimental effects of freezing beer, macro brewers do it routinely to gauge the quality of their product from year to year and even decade to decade. a group of professional will thaw a 10 year old brew and compare it to the recently produced beer. this way they can determine if the beer has strayed over the course of years. of course, the brewery is doing this in a controlled environment, but frozen is frozen.
Cheers.

 

As yourself and others have noted the beers should be fine to drink in the short term, but I wouldn't plan on cellaring/aging any beers that froze in case the expansion of the freezing liquid compromized the bottle/can seals. You might not be able to tell if the seal is bad by looking at it, because even very minor oxygen leakage can start the beer oxidizing/staling.