From warm pop to cold pop in three minutes flat
This is so simple you’ll be amazed it works. And the chemistry/physics behind this also keep you from falling on your tush in the winter:
- He took 6 hot beers from my garage and he placed them into a steel pot from the kitchen
- He tossed in enough ice cubes to completely cover the beer
- He then filled the pot with water
- Next, and this is the trick, he tossed in (what must have been) 2 cups of table salt.
- He took a large wooden spoon and stirred this thing up to be sure the salt dissolved.
- He placed the concoction into the freezer and in 3 minutes we had ice cold beer.
Frankly, I wish I knew about this little trick years ago. Apparently this works for wine, soda, or anything. The addition of the salt does something that I am admittedly not qualified to explain. If we have any experts that want to weigh in, feel free. I do however know that this works. From: How to Chill a Hot Beer or Soda in 3 Minutes – Dumb Little Man
This works simply because the salt lowers the freezing point of water from about 0C (32F) to like -4C (I think). Which means the water can be colder and still be liquid and because water is a right awesome conductor of heat (hence why it is used as a coolant for engine, nuclear power plants, etc) it can suck (technically transfer, but suck sounds better) more heat out of the can. The water isn’t cooling the can as much as the heat is moving into the cold zone.
I think you can skip the whole freezer bit, because three minutes in the freezer isn’t going to do much. Stirring does help because it circulates our super-chilled water do the colder parts can get nice and cozy with the warm cans. Try it for your self.
Oh how does this keep you from falling in winter…when the salt hits the ice it again reduces the freezing point, therefore melting it. Spiffy eh?
1 Comment
Isn’t this the same reason (well, sort of) that you put salt in an ice cream machine? The action of salt on the ice causes the ice to melt, sucking in the “heat of fusion”, thus chilling the mixture to a lower temperature. And, the lower temperature is better at causing the heat to move out of the desired object (ice cream, beer, soda, etc.), thus chilling it quicker.
The reason for the water is to provide a path of low thermal resistance.
The same effect could also be obtained by using, for example, a mixture of dry ice (solid Carbon Dioxide) and a suitable liquid (obviously not water, since it would freeze into water-ice at the temperature at which Carbon Dioxide sublimes), perhaps alcohol. Then, again, most of us don’t have dry ice just laying around.
Another trick might be to dump some Ammonium Nitrate into a solution of water and ice, since Ammonium Nitrate soaks up quite a bit of heat while dissolving. Then, again, you would want to be certain that you had completely wiped the cans/bottles off, since it’s not a good idea to consume Ammonium Nitrate (NaCl/Table salt, on the other hand, is a required mineral, so it’s not too bad if you accidentally ingest a bit of it, although I’m not sure I’d really like the taste of salted beer.).
Dave