Easiest way to cool a bottle of beer from room temperature to serving temp?

[Cdubneeddeal]

Once when I was bored, me and my bro-in-law used a bunch of leftover mostly empty canned air sprays upside down on a 6-pack. It was outside in August, and we got the things really frosty despite the heat.

Did you huff them too?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Exactly. The salt allows the solution to remain liquid while below the freezing point of water, but doesn't inherently make the water any colder.

Salt does make the water colder in the presence of ice. This is why it was commonly used to make ice cream. According to this chemist, the water can drop to as low as -21C before freezing.

 

[Born2bwire]

Exactly. The salt allows the solution to remain liquid while below the freezing point of water, but doesn't inherently make the water any colder.

Ice absorbs energy to melt. Normally in ice water the ice draws heat from the surrounding air since the water is the same temperature as the ice (the water doesn't freeze because it has to release extra energy to freeze, without the presence of colder objects all it can do is hover at the freezing point). The salt lowers the freezing point of the water so that the water can drop to a lower temperature before it hits the temperature barrier. So now the melting ice absorbs heat from the surrounding water and lowers the temperature of the ice-salt water solution lower than 0 Grad.

 

[BigPoppa]

Salt will allow the temperature of the mixture to lower, but its not going to lower it all by itself unless the ice itself is that temperature. Can't make it colder than the ice is, is what some are trying to say.

 

[RedCOMET]

how does the salt help? Why not fresh water ice?

Salt does make the water colder in the presence of ice. This is why it was commonly used to make ice cream. According to this chemist, the water can drop to as low as -21C before freezing.

also Mythbuster did something on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2005_season)#Episode_29_.E2.80.93_.22Cooling_a_Six_pack.22

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/03/mythbusters_cooling_a_sixpack.html

Just in case you didn't believe that fancy Chemist

 

[BoomerD]

CO2 fire extinguisher - takes less than a minute

This works GREAT, but refilling the extinguisher gets a bit expensive...

 

[IronWing]

Ask your wife to hold it.

 

[sdifox]

we jus put it on the back deck. If we were beer drinters.

 

[StevenYoo]

rock salt.

 

[Gothgar]

also Mythbuster did something on it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2005_season)#Episode_29_.E2.80.93_.22Cooling_a_Six_pack.22

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2005/03/mythbusters_cooling_a_sixpack.html

Just in case you didn't believe that fancy Chemist

cool, only 5 minutes in salted ice water to get to a good temp

that is pure win right there

 

[Babbles]

First make sure you always have beer in the fridge. I'm pretty sure that ranks high on the list of Man Laws.

As others have noted ice water with salt will get the water "colder" and therefore the beer "colder" than just ice water by itself. That entire freezing point depression thing.

<--- Analytical CHEMIST for ~ten years. . . have done the salt water ice bath many times in the lab

 

[GagHalfrunt]

This works GREAT, but refilling the extinguisher gets a bit expensive...

It also has to be done one beer at a time. With the salt water bath you can do cases at a time provided you have a large enough container. I've done the salt water thing for years before Mythbusters did it on TV, it's one of the first things you learn in college. Works great. You can go to the package store and bring back 10 cases of room temperature beer and have every single can cold in 5 minutes. You'd need every fire extinguisher on campus to do that if you tried it that way.

 

[Sloper]

Salt makes the freezing point significant lower. BUT you need a driving force to bring the temp down that low. If you take add salt to water and dump in a bunch of normal 0C ice blocks, the coldest the salt water ice bath gets is still 0C.

 

[Babbles]

Salt makes the freezing point significant lower. BUT you need a driving force to bring the temp down that low. If you take add salt to water and dump in a bunch of normal 0C ice blocks, the coldest the salt water ice bath gets is still 0C.

Chances are the ice is colder than 0ºC. I'm not really sure what the typical operating temperature of a home freezer is, but I would imagine it is something in the -15 to -20º region. The ice cubes should retain that temperature (or close to it) and therefore will not merely be at the freezing point of water.

Also as an aside, it may be a wise idea to crush the ice, sprinkle some salt on it then shove your can of beer into the crushed ice. I really haven't tried that method myself, but I wonder if increasing the surface area of crushed ice would be better.

 

[Rubycon]

Just pour the salt in the beer. Those pissy American lagers will definitely taste better.

 

[isekii]

Easiest Way~ run out to your local 7-11 or Wawa and get a bag or two of ice. throw it in a cooler with some water. and dip your beer in.

 

[surfsatwerk]

The frozen corpse of a dead hobo and a wee bit of lube. You can figure out the rest for yourself.

 

[drinkmorejava]

Chances are the ice is colder than 0ºC. I'm not really sure what the typical operating temperature of a home freezer is, but I would imagine it is something in the -15 to -20º region. The ice cubes should retain that temperature (or close to it) and therefore will not merely be at the freezing point of water.

But the ice cubes are not what is covering most of the surface area of the beer bottle, so the temp of the ice cubes is not relevant. The water itself cannot go below 32F without freezing, just as boiling water cannot go above 212F at 1atm.

 

[mugs]

But the ice cubes are not what is covering most of the surface area of the beer bottle, so the temp of the ice cubes is not relevant. The water itself cannot go below 32F without freezing, just as boiling water cannot go above 212F at 1atm.

It can if it contains salt

 

[Hacp]

But the ice cubes are not what is covering most of the surface area of the beer bottle, so the temp of the ice cubes is not relevant. The water itself cannot go below 32F without freezing, just as boiling water cannot go above 212F at 1atm.

You sir are wrong.

 

[Schadenfroh]

how does the salt help? Why not fresh water ice?

Never made homemade ice cream, have you?

 

[ChaoZ]

How much salt are we talking about here?

 

[Zargon]

It's the temperature that cools the beer, though; not the state of matter. I do not understand.

the temperature of the ice is significantly below 32F

it can cool the water to a temp below freezing, which without the salt, would get your beer stuck inside an iceberg.

its like, the first thing you should learn when having a college party in a warm climate

 

[zanejohnson]

remember to spin the bottle in the cold ice water solution.

 

[Jeff7]

Easiest? Refrigerator or freezer.

Quickest? Mythbusters tried it with some ideas that involve some construction work.
But here's one that just came to mind: Spray the beer through a mister within a cold environment. The tiny droplets can expel heat very quickly to the surroundings, allowing for rapid cooldown. Downside: It'll probably let out a lot of the carbonation.