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Times are bit strained in the household this month, but have free tickets for Kelso races on Saturday and as I've still to tick that course off, so I'm keen to go anyway.

We need to head off about half eight in the morning and was considering (rather than buying pints at circa £4.50 a time) taking a few cans into the racecourse (I think its OK to do that?). First race isn't until about two o'clock, so i was thinking of putting my beers in the freezer overnight and by the time we get to the races in the afternoon the beer will be sitting nicely chilled (and de-frosted!).

I've never actually frozen beer though before - does it go funny? does the can expand massively?? Anybody know?

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As far as I know (I remember reading somewhere) you can actually make the booze stronger by freezing/thawing as you are effectively doing a form or distilling. I know for a fact this works with spirits especially vodka. NO convinced on beer though.

I'd be concerend about how long it takes to defrost.... Last thing you'd want is to be stoating about with a budweiser slush puppy!

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18 minutes ago, scot scotland scottish said:

Times are bit strained in the household this month, but have free tickets for Kelso races on Saturday and as I've still to tick that course off, so I'm keen to go anyway.

We need to head off about half eight in the morning and was considering (rather than buying pints at circa £4.50 a time) taking a few cans into the racecourse (I think its OK to do that?). First race isn't until about two o'clock, so i was thinking of putting my beers in the freezer overnight and by the time we get to the races in the afternoon the beer will be sitting nicely chilled (and de-frosted!).

I've never actually frozen beer though before - does it go funny? does the can expand massively?? Anybody know?

There is a good chance the cans will burst in the freezer. For the same reason that frozen water pipes burst. You might not notice until they start to thaw out though, which could get messy.

You could put them a cool box with some ice in it, but that all adds to the weight you have to carry. Or you could drink proper beer that is supposed to be drunk at room temperature instead.;)

 

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13 minutes ago, Mazziessc said:

As far as I know (I remember reading somewhere) you can actually make the booze stronger by freezing/thawing as you are effectively doing a form or distilling. I know for a fact this works with spirits especially vodka. 

 

Aye, that does work, but I have never understood why anybody would want to  do it?

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14 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

There is a good chance the cans will burst in the freezer. For the same reason that frozen water pipes burst. You might not notice until they start to thaw out though, which could get messy.

You could put them a cool box with some ice in it, but that all adds to the weight you have to carry. Or you could drink proper beer that is supposed to be drunk at room temperature instead.;)

 

That's actually a decent shout. Might get a few Dark Islands together instead

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19 minutes ago, Mazziessc said:

As far as I know (I remember reading somewhere) you can actually make the booze stronger by freezing/thawing as you are effectively doing a form or distilling. I know for a fact this works with spirits especially vodka. NO convinced on beer though.

I'd be concerend about how long it takes to defrost.... Last thing you'd want is to be stoating about with a budweiser slush puppy!

Haha!! :lol:

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8 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Aye, that does work, but I have never understood why anybody would want to  do it?

I have no idea either unless you are looking for stronger booze surely then you  would just go and buy some??

I do like a chilled vodka in the hoose mind you.

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If I want a lager at short notice a trick I use once I've bought it is to stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Usually gets it down to a nice drinkable temperature.

So you could chill the beers in the freezer for between 1-2 hours. That should be enough to keep them at the right temperature but not quite long enough for them to burst.

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15 minutes ago, Armchair Bob said:

If I want a lager at short notice a trick I use once I've bought it is to stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Usually gets it down to a nice drinkable temperature.

Wrap it in a wet cloth, then put it in the freezer. Chills it rapidly :ok: 

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16 minutes ago, Armchair Bob said:

If I want a lager at short notice a trick I use once I've bought it is to stick it in the freezer for about 30 minutes. Usually gets it down to a nice drinkable temperature.

So you could chill the beers in the freezer for between 1-2 hours. That should be enough to keep them at the right temperature but not quite long enough for them to burst.

Canae see that plan going wrong.:blink:

 

7 minutes ago, Parklife said:

Wrap it in a wet cloth, then put it in the freezer. Chills it rapidly :ok: 

The beer or the cloth? All you are doing is helping to insulate the can, which will mean it takes longer to cool down. If you leave the cloth on it after you take it out of the freezer, it will stay cold for longer though.

 

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34 minutes ago, Orraloon said:

Canae see that plan going wrong.:blink:

 

The beer or the cloth? All you are doing is helping to insulate the can, which will mean it takes longer to cool down. If you leave the cloth on it after you take it out of the freezer, it will stay cold for longer though.

 

No I can see how it works. Water is a great conductor of heat so will also suck heat out of an object in a freezer faster than cold air will.

 

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11 minutes ago, Armchair Bob said:

No I can see how it works. Water is a great conductor of heat so will also suck heat out of an object in a freezer faster than cold air will.

 

I can see how it would help a bit in the heat transfer process. But probably not enough to overcome the need to cool down and then freeze the water in the cloth. Water has a relatively high Specific heat and also a relatively high Latent heat of fusion. 

I suppose in Parkies example, he is only wanting to cool the beer from 20C down to 5C as quickly as possible, so the rate of heat transfer is the most important bit for him. He won't be too bothered about efficiency. It would be an interesting experiment but i'm still guessing it won't be any quicker. We could try to calculate it, but that would be difficult as one of the big factors would be the thickness of the cloth and how much water he uses. 

I think sticking them in the fridge as soon as he gets them home would be the easiest option, but I'm going to stick to drinking proper beer, that doesn't need chilled in order to give it the illusion of tasting "better".

 

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4 hours ago, Armchair Bob said:

No I can see how it works. Water is a great conductor of heat so will also suck heat out of an object in a freezer faster than cold air will.

 

It doesn't "suck" anything out, it increases the thermal conductivity so more energy will transfer quicker from the high temperature to lower it's done by conduction not convection.

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Just to back up Parkie's theory, I do this but do it with kitchen roll.  Run 2 pieces of kitchen roll under the tap, wrap one round the top and one round the bottom of the bottle (of wine) and stick it in the freezer for 5-10 mins.  Take the bottle out and you have a pretty much perfectly chilled bottle of wine.  It's definitely quicker than doing it without.

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yeah cause the heat transfers quicker from the glass to the water than it does the glass to the air, due to the difference in temperatures being larger and more energy able to transfer through a soaking towel than cold air.

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It's just your luck. I've put beers in the freezer to chill for 20mins and forgotten about them and they've been in there for days and been fine, just defrosted them and drank.

Ive also put a few cans in and forgotten them for a few hours and they've burst in the freezer.

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I think u will find the defrosted beer will be completely flat when u try and drink it.

All the gas gets released out ofit and into the top of the can and will escape as soon as the can is opened...

Itshappened with irn bru anyway

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1 hour ago, TDYER63 said:

Cans of beer will definitely burst in the freezer. Trust me, I have mopped up enough cans of McEwans Export  to know. Your freezer will resemble the roadside as snow turns to slush.  

Chilling McEwans Export is almost as daft as cold Guinness. :wacko:

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9 hours ago, scot scotland scottish said:

Times are bit strained in the household this month, but have free tickets for Kelso races on Saturday and as I've still to tick that course off, so I'm keen to go anyway.

We need to head off about half eight in the morning and was considering (rather than buying pints at circa £4.50 a time) taking a few cans into the racecourse (I think its OK to do that?). First race isn't until about two o'clock, so i was thinking of putting my beers in the freezer overnight and by the time we get to the races in the afternoon the beer will be sitting nicely chilled (and de-frosted!).

I've never actually frozen beer though before - does it go funny? does the can expand massively?? Anybody know?

There is a co-op in the housing estate opposite racecourse, 500 yards max. Big fridge full of beer!

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