Introduction: How to Chill Beer Instantly
Your friends just came over and you have a six pack stashed in your pantry but it's not cold. What are you going to do?
No worries! Grab a couple of household items and in less than 5 minutes your beer will be ice cold.
Household Items:
Drill with 3/32" Drill Bit
Bottle of Compressed Air without Bitterant- see warning on bottle
Duct Tape
Plastic Container
Beer
Adapted from Popular Science Big Book of Hacks
Drill a small hole into the side of your container using a 3 /32 " drill bit. Don't make the hole too big. You just need it wide enough to poke the straw through. Test the straw out to make sure it fits snug in the hole.
***DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP***Next, place your beer into the plastic container and wrap the duct tape around it 5 or 6 times. You don't want the top of the container to fly off when the cold air is injected into the container.
Once the container is taped tightly, put your gloves on and we're ready to chill some beer. Insert the straw into the bottle of compressed air. Turn the bottle upside down and squeeze it for one minute. Don't let the straw touch the beer. The top of the container might pop up a few times, but it won't fly off, because you followed the previous step and taped it tightly.
Cut the tape off the container and remove the cans of beer. Tap on the top of each one to relieve the pressure. Pour into a red cup or glass of your choice and enjoy!
Don't drink the beer directly from the can unless the compressed air you use does not contain a bitterant agent. Companies making bottles of compressed air have started to add a bitterant to deter people from using the product to get high.
Cheers!
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118 Comments
8 years ago on Introduction
I've seen a few videos of people using this to freeze locks and then smash them open.
Reply 1 year ago
that is fake!
7 years ago on Introduction
The main benefit I see to this is while camping, etc. Can anyone provide and estimate of how many beers a full can of cleaner (however big that is) can cool? If no one has personal experience, I guess it could be calculated from heat capacity of beer and enthalpy of vaporization of CO2...
8 years ago on Introduction
we use this to keep the drink cold
10 years ago on Introduction
If it REALLY is "compressed air", then it is not possible for someone to "get high" on it.
If they are getting high on it, then it is some other type of chemical.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
I'm not sure that this is true - excessive nitrogen can cause "nitrogen narcosis" when diving and that is pretty similar to being drunk apparently. I'm not sure how you would apply the compressed air to make that happen at atmospheric pressure but any method I might speculate on would be highly dangerous!
I don't say that it is possible but it's far from certain that it's impossible.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Nitrogen narcosis is caused when you have higher partial pressures of nitrogen in your system. You are not going to get it at 1 ATM. At 1 ATM, the PPN2 is approximately 0.79. To get noticeable nitrogen narcosis, you need a PPN2 of around 5 or so. Some people notice it at lower PPs and some don't notice it until a bit more. For myself, I start to notice it around 165 ft or so (i.e. PPN2 = approx 6.0. If you are on the surface and exposed to 1 ATM air, you can't get high on even 100% N2, although you can asphyxiate yourself. It would be possible to do some compressed breathing of a gas, but you could not compress the air in your lungs enough to have a narcosis affect. The mere attempt to do this would have serious health consequences that were not related to the gas that you were breathing.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Yes, that's rather what I meant by "highly dangerous".
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Dangerous in the same way that any other gas can reduce the oxygen concentration in your lungs and cause lightheadedness or unconsciousness, but not from a narcotic standpoint.
10 years ago on Introduction
Misleading title, I was hoping to cool my warm beer instantly, not in one minute....
Just kidding, nice instructable! Maybe next time an instructable on how to cool a keg using an industrial size canister of CO2?
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
You want instant?
6-pack + CO2 fire extinguisher!
Don't get much more instant than that...
10 years ago on Introduction
you could also wrap a damp paper towel arount it and put it in the freezer for 10 min.
10 years ago on Introduction
It's almost as fast and probably cheaper to just put the beer in a bowl of water with some salt and ice added to it. Takes about 5 minutes to really cold beverage and you're not messing with anything that could give you a frost burn!
10 years ago on Introduction
My father in law told me the same story, about chilling beer in N Africa during WWII. They would drench a crate of beer with aviation fuel, and then place it on the wing of a small plane, just behind the propeller. Starting the engine created a 'breeze' of epic proportions, which quickly evaporated the gas, and cooled the beer. Simple physics, but incredibly wasteful of fuel. But in wartime, needs must !
10 years ago on Introduction
Respectfully; I'm fairly certain that the bitterant has no role to play in cooling the beer. Shake a can of compressed air one can tell that the can contains a liquid. A liquid that has a low boiling point when contained under pressured in a pressure vessel. As an example propane has a boiling point of - 45 F making propane unusable where the air temperature can falls below that, that's why in the colder areas they bury the tank Getting back on track when some of the gas is release from the can the liquid boils to fill the void left.
In another forum a person relate t hat his dad told him in WWII they would put their beer in a can of gasoline to cool it down. I responded his dad wasn't telling them exactly how they done it, While gasoline could be use to cool down the beer merely putting it in a can of static gas isn't going to cool it. I suggested perhaps they put it in an open top container of gas so the gas could evaporate thus cooling the gas along with beer as well. Interestingly enough he asked his dad about it, and turned my speculation was close to correct. So we nailed down how to use gas to cool a beverage in that forum :)
10 years ago on Introduction
I use the same trick to "shrink" bearings for assembly or to help break loose stuck screws.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
There's a lot of interest to see your trick. Please post an 'ible on you method if you can.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
I'll try. I don't have any stuck screws/bolts right now - but could "fake" one.
A shop I worked at carried a product from Wurth - a temperature reduction spray. I had used it in my own shop - but ran out one day - remembered the upside down trick with a Dust Off can - which is about 3 times cheaper than the Wurth stuff.
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
we used to use a spray like this for diagnosing dodgy circuitry on PCBs - poor solder connections would be a bit hotter than the rest so would eveaporate the 'ice' visibly. Iffy transistors would suddenly spring back to life when cooled (not usually for very long!)
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
Also the application of heat will bring a semiconductor back to life. Before in circuit transistor testers where available. When a technician would remove one from the circuit to test they would test good. Often they put it back in the circuit, and the "repair" last longer than one would think. Seeing the heat from removing is so slight, I wonder why the application of heat was never recommend to see if that shocked a transistor to life before removing it. One of those YMMV thongs