How to Chill a Beer in 5 Minutes or Less

video How to Chill a Beer in 5 Minutes or Less

Learn how to chill beers in a crunch. Kelly from HackCollege shows you 3 different methods.

For full episodes of the podcast and more, check out www.hackcollege.com

HEY YOU says: Jul 30, 2012. 3:09 AM

I agree with Nyax, JohnJY et al - Clearly, you do not pay for water as cooling beer by running tap water down the drain is very wasteful. The Salt and ice water method is more water friendly.

Try buying your beer earlier.

Cheers

frozenkamote says: Jun 7, 2012. 6:21 AM

I supersize the third technique for parties, we use steel drums, ice blocks, about a kilo of salt and about 3 cases of beer.

I can swear by this technique really works. Also works for soda in cans and pet bottles.

FYI...this also works for beer kegs :D

j77jbk says: Feb 17, 2012. 12:43 PM

I mean this in a nice way but the guy reminds me of McLovin from Superbad!!!

Solderguy says: Jan 30, 2009. 12:22 AM

Can't you just stick it in the freezer for five minutes? I hope this works for Coca-Cola.

zap1789 in reply to SolderguyFeb 20, 2010. 4:59 PM

I'm pretty sure putting it in the freezer would not be as effective as submerging it in the ice/water/salt combination. The reason being the water would (I assume) be colder than the air inside a freezer, and because it's making direct contact with the water, it would cool faster.

brupbacher in reply to zap1789Jun 3, 2010. 2:40 PM

There is a Mythbusters episode about this very topic.
They showed icewater to be faster than the freezer, and salt/ice/water to be the fastest.
As I learned in Chemistry about 15 years ago: Salt water: lower boiling point, lower freezing point.

jjohnsson in reply to brupbacherDec 12, 2011. 5:03 AM

Nitpicking here, but the boiling point of saltwater is actually a little higher than fresh water. http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1457

But ofc, the usefull property in this case is the lowered freezing point. :)

Phoghat in reply to SolderguyJan 30, 2010. 4:47 AM

You have to time it closely other wise exploding beer cans

Dr.Bill says: Jan 13, 2011. 3:18 PM

Back in 1971 up in Alaska 5 of us would drink a LOT of beer on our 2 days off.
We were in a USN fire department on ADAK, an island 800 miles out in the Aleutions.
We drank it soooo fast it was hard to get it cold fast enough.

We started bringing a 45 lb Co2 extinguisher back to the barracks with us.
A 10 second blast on a case of beer would make a small amount of ice in each can. Gave us enough time to chill the other 8 cases with snow!

Yure Tax Dollar At Work.

thierry.kok says: Feb 4, 2009. 1:43 PM

I know a faster method. use a fire extinguisher!

johnny3h in reply to thierry.kokAug 29, 2010. 7:43 AM

Yes, but you can't use the Dry Chemical tyoe, ONLY the CO2 [Compressed Carbon Dioxide gas type]. The release of pressure in activating the extinguisher creates a tremendous chilling effect. Be careful not to fast freeze your hands of skin [it only take seconds of contact with the blowing gas], and also be sure to use this technique ONLY in WELL VENTILATED AREAS, as CO2 can axphixiate [sp?] you very quickly.

christopherk239 says: Feb 17, 2009. 6:04 PM

if you get some copper tubing in a coil and freeze it in ice. make sure both ends come out of the ice. place your glass under the tube and pour the beer in the top. when it gets to the bottom it will be ice cold .

Rmstrjim in reply to christopherk239Feb 23, 2010. 11:19 AM

Or, instead of flattening your beer: add a Bilge pump and shape the copper coil so the beer container will fit inside, recirc ice water around zee beer.

(seabear) says: Aug 23, 2009. 12:53 AM

if u freeze some moonshine(i dont know anyone who does this. ahem) and take away the ice that is left then u have pure alcohol. DO NOT DRINK THIS ALCOHOL IS A POISON. seriously.

Phoghat in reply to (seabear)Jan 30, 2010. 4:45 AM

Grasshopper, you are misled. If the moonshine is poisonous then the distillate will be also. If you can drink the shine you can drink the distillate.
My grandfather taught me this technique when I was just a grasshopper.During prohibition he would make his own hard cider from apple trees in our backyard. To make apple jack (brandy) he would freeze the cider and collect about the first 1/3 of melted liquid. Presto brandy.
When you can snatch the pebble from my hand you are ready

gHjM3W5T20YCS4e30 in reply to PhoghatJan 31, 2010. 2:55 AM

Phoghat & (seabear):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applejack_(beverage)

JohnJY says: Apr 6, 2009. 4:48 AM

(first method is an incredible waste of drinking water! PLEASE don't do it,) NO we CAN'T waste water! It's not like it takes up more then 80%! SARCASM!

Phoghat in reply to JohnJYJan 30, 2010. 4:46 AM

Which is why the 3rd method is easiest and best. No water waste and the beer is cooled efficiently.

D4VOBRO in reply to JohnJYApr 14, 2009. 12:11 AM

Dude I live in the silly country called Australia, we're in a drought and most of us have learned the importance of saving water. Even though you may not be in a drought it still takes a lot of energy to purify water so.... um .... yeah i feel so lame

Opsenica says: Jan 28, 2010. 4:36 AM

liquid oxygen does it best... 2bad bottles break

guy90 says: Jul 18, 2009. 9:19 PM

Thanks for the upload- some good pointers here, and interesting to learn

Nyax says: Mar 19, 2009. 12:43 PM

first method is an incredible waste of drinking water! PLEASE don't do it, use the freezer or something. As for the choice of beer, light?, why not water, its almost the same thing..

frontier says: Aug 3, 2008. 8:21 AM

another method specially effective in the summer when the sun is baking down. wrap your can or bottle with the beverage in newspapers, so theres a thick layer around it. then pour cold water from the kitchen sink over the newspapers so they get soaked. then put it outside under the sun... its the same principal as just holding it under the running water.. BUT. the sun makes the water evaporate and leave the newspapers very fast, and enter the bottle/can. in a minute or so the beverage will have almost same temperature as the water had when you got it from the sink. the newspaper layer has to be thicker the more beverage is inside.. for a 1.5 liter bottle the newspaper layer need to be as thick as the bottle itself etc. works very well.

Belcher1035 says: Jul 23, 2008. 10:47 AM

Lay the can on its side in about 2 inches of icewater (lots of ice) with salt. Spin the can like a wheel with your hands (along the axis that is normally vertical). The drink will be cold in about a minute. It's basically the same method as the icewater bath, but spinning the can provides more effective cooling.

TheScientist says: Jul 22, 2008. 6:31 PM

doens't pouring it over ice make it lose some of the fizz? (i guess depending how fizzy it is...) a really good salt bath can get as low as -20ºC (don't know what that is in the archaic fahrenheit measure! :-P), we get our chemistry first years to make them. Tip for anyone at home making one: more salt is not always the answer! 50:50 ice/water (preferably with crushed ice) then a good handful per 1-2 liters of water ice mix (like shown in the video) should get nice and cold!

hackcollege (author) in reply to TheScientistJul 22, 2008. 7:31 PM

My younger brother also pointed out that--if you can get it--road salt will cool things much better than your run-of-the-mill table salt: "Use road salt (Calcium Chloride, CaCl2) instead of table salt if you really want to cool something off quickly. You get more ions, which leads to an even lower freezing temperature of water. Just thought you might want to know." ~Kelly

hackcollege (author) says: Jul 22, 2008. 8:59 AM

Damn! I guess we don't feel so bad if Mythbusters already got the scoop on us. I would have expected them to use liquid nitrogen or something crazy like that :)