Beer cooling methods

[Papa Lazarou]

In a blatant nick from another poplier site, but it made me laugh anyway!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zky7OBx2s5A

I'm thinking of the dry ice route - apart from the obvious hazards of handling the stuff...

[Paddy_NL]

They've done a survey on Myth Busters on cooling down beer cans in shortest time possible. Best one was cold water in a cool box, mixed with kitchen salt and add ice cubes. Beer cans were down to 3 Celcius within 20 mins

[Robspot]

Do you know any CA'ers who would be prepared to wait 20 minutes for a beer? 

I much prefer the "Befriend a large group of Dutch chaps with an industrial sized beer cooling plant" method 

[Lazy B'stard]

Our plan this year (untested at this moment in time) is a chest freezer with a timer plug and digital thermometer. Get it nice and cold before departing, throw it into the back of the van and plug it in. Set timer to give short bursts of power and check temp to get calibration right. We have used 3 way fridge in past but found that the beer didn't get chance to chill before use. We should have more capacity this year. Whats the optimum temp for beer enjoyment?   

[Robspot]

Depends on the quality of your brew. Lower quality beer needs to be colder to remove the unpleasant taste.

My camping companions often baulk at my purchase of a 5 litre plastic drum of  dubious quality French rose but chill it down close to the temperature of liquid nitrogen and I swear it's delicious.

[Steve Pyro]

I find my normal beer cooling method to be foolproof, if a bit more expensive (however, I haven't shelled out for a fridge or a generator).

I stand up, walk from HA to the Stella Bar and ask for a nice cold glass of Leffe (or 5) 

[Piglet]

Whats the optimum temp for beer enjoyment?   

It does depend which beer you're talking about    For the first four or five (or two in my case  ), the temperature is an issue after that nobody notices what they are drinking 

[Steve TTTD]

This wouldn't work at Le Mans but...

1.Open Bottle
2.Hold in fromt of wife's face
3.Ask wife is she minds you sleeping with her sister
4. Freeze bottle in the icy cold stare that she gives you

[LangTall]

Whats the optimum temp for beer enjoyment?   

It does depend which beer you're talking about    For the first four or five (or two in my case  ), the temperature is an issue after that nobody notices what they are drinking 

If you're referring to those brown tall bottles you had last year, I see your point.

This wouldn't work at Le Mans but...

1.Open Bottle
2.Hold in fromt of wife's face
3.Ask wife is she minds you sleeping with her sister
4. Freeze bottle in the icy cold stare that she gives you

Wouldn't work in my case. We both know how 'beautiful' her sisters are. 

I'll stick to the firmness of our draftmachines and fridges.

[monkey]

I'm thinking of the dry ice route - apart from the obvious hazards of handling the stuff...


[/quote]

You might already know this, but a serious word of warning when handling/using dry ice, it is very dangerous in enclosed spaces, i.e. in a car or a van and the like. It lets out an odourless gas (can't remember which) that can lead to asphyxiation. Common symptoms vary from drowsy to totally out of it - trouble is it kind of creeps up on you apparently, not a good state of mind to be in when heading white knuckles at the very edge of the legal speed limit on your way to Le Sarthe. If you do choose to use it, (and I would not) have all your windows open for ventilation, even if the ice is in a sealed container. Sorry to be so ‘nanny,’ but thought it would be useful to know.

[Steve Pyro]

True Monkey.
Dry Ice is solid carbon dioxide.  If allowed to displace breathable oxygen in an enclosed space it can terminally spoil your day.

[Andy Zarse]

My camping companions often baulk at my purchase of a 5 litre plastic drum of  dubious quality French rose but chill it down close to the temperature of liquid nitrogen and I swear it's delicious.

We tried that stuff about ten years ago. We got stuck in on the drive from the curcuit to Caen and were as pissed as parrots on the on the ferry. I can just about remember wrestling in the bar with an equally drunken man from Leicester. Nothing odd about that except he had no trousers or pants on. As it was a lunchtime sailing with families on board, the ship's bosun took a fairly dim view of matters.

[Dave H]

We tried that stuff about ten years ago. We got stuck in on the drive from the curcuit to Caen and were as pissed as parrots on the on the ferry. I can just about remember wrestling in the bar with an equally drunken man from Leicester. Nothing odd about that except he had no trousers or pants on. As it was a lunchtime sailing with families on board, the ship's bosun took a fairly dim view of matters.

Class!

I have vague memories of an outbound late night crossing that resulted in a serious kick-up on the car deck with some French truckers.  Oooh, that was not good.  I was very impressed to look up, after having been nutted by some guy and subsequently scrambling around for my specs (bad form nutting a specky four eyes by the way Frenchy), to see my bro Matt Harper delivering an unrelenting beating to my assailant.  Matt's specialty in those days was clearly "no mercy" once the negotiating efforts had ground to a hault.  He's been witnessed on several occasions raining mighty blows to the exposed parts of combatants who have resigned to the fetal position.

As for cold beer.  Coolios avec pneus and cubed (vs. shaved) ice gets things pretty nesh in a hurry.

[Perdu]

We havent got it right ( ) yet but last years huge bucket of water with copious amounts of mucky pikeyice got the little green bottles into a reasonable state after halfanhour

maybe this year we might throw that salt in the bucket idea in too, but I am worried about tasting the salt

I will not be trying dry ice...

If Steve, who knows a bit about breathing unusual gases in odd circumstances don't like it, I dont like it neither!

 

[BigH]

I knew it wouldn't be long, the old 'cold beer' thread!- There's some top philosophers and scientists been holding their breath for this one.
After years of drinking warm beer, I've decided I might as well get used to it, because whatever method that's tried to cool them, the beers always end up warm. It's like lemmy off a cliff, and rats up drainpipes, sort of inevitable. Fridges, gennies, cold baths, shallow trays of water, wet tea towel competitions, dry ice, stuffed up a corpses bottom, they've all been tried. Well maybe not the last one, but I'm not holding out much hope for that either.
I think dry ice on site could be a winner, but wtf are we going to get dry ice? -it's tough enough getting wet ice.
Salt in the water is a bit off-track if you ask me. Assuming that the phenomenon we're after here is the one known as 'freezing point depression', then what you really need to do is freeze salt water, - that way when it melts it'll be wetter and colder. Of course there's also the phenomenon known as 'f*****g freezing depression', and I had that two years ago on Tuesday night on MB when the temperature seemed to plummet in the night and had my teeth playing like castanets.
I reckon half the problem is one of volume, there's not enough of it I reckon. Everyone, or mostly everyone (sorry Paddy...) is trying to cool small amounts, and what's needed is a large amount, the larger the better, - who could disagree with that? Maybe a wheely bin filled with as much ice and water as posssible, and members of the 'Cold Beer Club' could then dip in. The lucky ones could go in head first and emerge like Harry Houdini only with Peter Schmeichels nose.
So there you go, we need a club. And some beer. Oh god, I need some beer...
H