Sunday, July 8, 2007

How to Chill a Hot beer or soda in 3minutes

So my father and brother-in-law were over this weekend for a barbecue. My fridge was stuffed with appetizers and salads so I was only able to fit a 12-pack of beer. Normally, this would have been enough so I didn't worry about it. After a couple hours, the stash was depleted.

I did have some more beer in the garage but the 90+ degree Chicago heat had rendered it useless for at least an hour. Now what? These guys all had designated drivers and, in all honesty, they wanted more beer. Little did I know, the old man had a trick up his sleeve that I had never heard of. If I had a video camera ready, I would have taped this because it was pretty cool (sorry, no pun intended there).

Here is how he took beer from 80+ degrees to (seemingly) 40 degrees in about 3 minutes.
  1. He took 6 hot beers from my garage and he placed them into a steel pot from the kitchen

  2. He tossed in enough ice cubes to completely cover the beer

  3. He then filled the pot with water

  4. Next, and this is the trick, he tossed in (what must have been) 2 cups of table salt.

  5. He took a large wooden spoon and stirred this thing up to be sure the salt dissolved.

  6. He placed the concoction into the freezer and in 3 minutes we had ice cold beer.
Frankly, I wish I knew about this little trick years ago. Apparently this works for wine, soda, or anything. The addition of the salt does something that I am admittedly not qualified to explain. If we have any experts that want to weigh in, feel free. I do however know that this works.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

the salt is to keep the ice from desolving so fast in the water..trick does work..
-comin out from the island of Saipan..Peace.

Anonymous said...

The salt lowers the freezing point of water, allowing it to go below zero celsius.

Anonymous said...

sounds like you had plenty of room in your freezer. i know a trick too. . . just put the beer in the freezer. sure it takes more than 3min but you had at least an hour window to let it cool while you polished off your 12 pack.

Anonymous said...

Expanding a little on the last comment. Water conducts heat better than air, which is why it's faster to cool down a can of beer submerged in water than it is to leave it in the freezer.
Ice is cooler than water, but you it's difficult to envelop the entire surface of the can of beer in ice, which is why you make saltwater which can be as cool as ice while still covering the entire can.

Anonymous said...

From one Chicago beer drinker to another:

Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Also hot water freezes quicker than cold......try it

Anonymous said...

Hi, this is great information :)

It was recently on "Myth Busters" TV show also

Anonymous said...

The second and fourth comments are correct.

As for hot water freezing faster than cold, that is not correct. That misconception comes from its vapor freezing which only freezes a thin top layer while the rest of the water remains unfrozen longer.

Anonymous said...

Holy crap! You watched Mythbusters 2 weeks ago and retold the story as your own! Bravo!

Anonymous said...

Screw me thats a waste of time it takes less than 20mins to cool a drink in the freezer it must have taken you that long to get all that shit out and mix it up.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the last guy.

Anonymous said...

if youve ever homemade ice cream, they do the same thing. rocksalt+ ice.

Anonymous said...

Hot water loses heat faster when placed in a cold environment (such as the freezer in your refrigerator) than warm or cool water but does not freeze faster.

As for salt not dissolving ice faster... ever see what salt does to ice in the winter? It causes a chemical reaction that makes it harder for the water molecules to form a solid.

Great trick if it works in under 5 minutes, otherwise drink that 12 pack as suggested and don't forget about the beer in the freezer. Exploding cans are not fun to clean up.

Anonymous said...

Hot water boils faster than cold though lol.