Frozen Bottles!

Intro: Frozen Bottles!

Freeze your favourite bottle of liqour in a sheath of ice.

Distilled spirits like vodka and gin have a high alcohol content (typically 40%+ abv) and will not freeze in conventional freezers. Luckily conventional household freezers are plenty cold to freeze water. Submerging a full bottle of gin within a container of water and freezing we are able to selectively freeze the water creating a sheath of ice around our bottle!

This instructable won runner-up in the Forbes Teach Me Fast Contest
Check out all the entries!

Comments

[codongolev]

I once filled a giant balloon from a grocery store with water and I put it in a round tupperware container in my freezer. the next day I took it out and popped the balloon and drained the water from the center. now I have a giant ice bowl and nothing to do with it....

[schumi23]

That sond cool! Trying to think:
So, you fill a balloon with water, and the tupperware with water, then put the baloon in the tupperware and froze it all
Them removed the balloon?

[mikeasaurus]

fill it with juice and have a party!

[codongolev]

it kinda cracked in some places during freezing, so it might dribble, but it does fit a two-liter perfectly.

[TabbyDeAnne]

Oooh! I'm going to do this for our New Year's Eve party! We usually just have our spirits sitting on the bar but this is so much neater and will make for a nice frosty drink! After midnight we play shot games until all the booze is gone so now our shots might be colder as well. Thanks so much!

[OlYeller21]

I don't seem to be able to find a link anywhere but I saw on a TV show that professional ice sculptors vibrate the water while it's freezing to make it more crystalline.  The vibration was of a very high frequency to the point where it couldn't be heard (supersonic to humans).  I think it just allows the oxygen in the water to continue to rise out of the water as it's freezing.

[Roflolommo]

Ive heard that if you heat water and then put it right in the freezer it will be clearer than unheated water. Thats probably easier to do than vibrating it really fast.

[guy90]

Clear, simple to follow and useful : ) thanks for the upload

[The DNR]

Mike,
While your instructable is a fun idea, I found several problems when I tried to follow your steps.

First, my bottles would not stay centered inside the 2 liter mold, and would fall to one side.  (I tried it with a variety of shapes of bottles, but no short squat ones like the one you show)  Do you have a solution for this? 

Second, my bottles would fall over as the ice melted.  Even though they had flat bottoms, the ice wouldn't melt perfectly, and as the bottom melted it would cause the bottles to lean.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

[mikeasaurus]

DNR,

If your bottles are more slender are having problems standing up try a 2-step freeze process. First pour water into mold only to cover the 'legs', freeze. Once frozen place bottle into mold, the previously frozen water will leave a flat surface for the bottle to rest on, add water to top and freeze again.

As for melting, my booze doesn't last long enough during a party to experience this problem. Best to have a few on hand if they're going to be out for a while and rotate.

Thanks for trying it! do you have any pictures?

[theburn7]

I like the start with the contest paper frozen

[Choscura]

if you put the liquor in the water while it's still warm and put that in the freezer, it will freeze faster. Hot water loses heat faster than cold water, you can test it out on some ice cubes- cubes from hot water will be all the way frozen before cold water.

[nortega]

hot water does not freeze faster than cold water. the entropy as well as enthalpy for cold water is closer to reaching the freezing point for water. Although, warm water will make the ice cubes clearer (less bubbles) because fewer gasses are dissolved in warm water.

[cccgipson]

It MAY freeze faster but under most circumstances it probably won't. And no matter what your thinking is on this subject, I think everyone will agree that it will consume more energy freezing "hot" water than cold (or room temperature) water. I will agree with your suggestion - test it out. I have and the cold water always freezes first (and yes I have read about the Mpempa effect).

See http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-it-true-that-hot-water

[mikeasaurus]

the debate aside, just how fast do you need your water to freeze?

[Re-design]

Great article.

[_blackjack_]

While gin will not freeze, it contains botanical oils which can come out of suspension at very low temperature, which will spoil the flavor and aroma. (Unflavored) vodka should be fine, though.

[ronmaggi]

Expo 86 Ruled!! Yay Vancouver!

[mikeasaurus]

I KNOW!!

Though not the same as a World Expro the Olympics will be pretty awesome too. Maybe I'll grab some merchandise, but everything I've seen so far looks tacky :(

[goodgnus]

If you freeze a rope into the contraption you have a handle by which to lift and pour.