Cold beers/cider Mmmmmmm.....

[swell]

Realise this prob gets talked to death each year but is a huge concern for me any tips or tricks would be appreciated, been thinking of emptying the freezer and freezing a few crates of beer/cider and chucking them in cool boxes/bags (can you freeze beer???) not sure if they explode or not anyone tried this, did it work???

[Laura_Babs]

Realise this prob gets talked to death each year but is a huge concern for me any tips or tricks would be appreciated, been thinking of emptying the freezer and freezing a few crates of beer/cider and chucking them in cool boxes/bags (can you freeze beer???) not sure if they explode or not anyone tried this, did it work???

[swell]

Just put a can of Calsberg in the freezer, will check on it tonight

[r0cky]

Sometimes I've put beer in the freezer to cool it down quicker, then forget about it. I mostly return to a frozen mess.

If you really want to keep beer cold, you will need a large quantity of ice and an icebox rated for five-days (like Igloo MaxCold range).

The bars run by WBC at Glastonbury have large coolers and keep the beer at the correct temperature.

[Kyelo]

I put beer in my in the porch area of my tent. Granted I don't get a freezing beer but it is cool and is far from warm. Never had a problem.

[swell]

I put beer in my in the porch area of my tent. Granted I don't get a freezing beer but it is cool and is far from warm. Never had a problem.

Edited April 26, 2009 by swell

[r0cky]

fair point but you cant beat a nice cold one

[swell]

hasn't exploded yet, only put it in a couple of hours ago though, will let you know tonight

[ukslim]

Drinks you can enjoy at ambient temperature:

- red wine

- whisky

- tequila

[russelljmunn]

I've spent much of my adult life pondering this exact same question and so far have not come across a good, free solution that will stand up to the 5 days of sunshine we experience at Glastonbury.

There is one method that I've always wanted to try though but my inherent laziness has always prevented me from doing so:

1. Dig hole about 15cm deep, and about 70cm2 in the porch of your tent.

2. Line said hole with a non-permeable material of your choice.

3. Fill hole with water.

4. Place beer/cider cans in your water filled trench.

5. Build lid for hole out of wood and cover lid with a reflective material (i.e. tin foil or one of those emergency blankets). (Remember to get an adult to help you with the cutting of the material).

6. Place lid on top of your ramshackle fridge.

In theory the reflective lid should keep the heat away from the top and the coolness in from the bottom and because your beer is below ground level it should stay fairly cool. It also doubles up as a handy hiding place to keep your beer safe.

Having said all of that, I have no scientific knowledge to be able to say for sure whether this will work.

The main flaw in this plan though is that it takes a degree of craftsmanship and a certain amount of effort to construct the underground fridge, and I've never been sober enough at Glastonbury to possess such characteristics.

[port]

this definitely works, put cans on their side under your groundsheet. after one night they will be fridge cold.

supposed to work better if you wrap a wet cloth round each can, as the wet cloth stops the cold moisture on the can evaporating, but I have never tried this, as without the cloth is always cold enough for me.

I also take an igloo with a 4ltr sized ice block in it, the cans are not much colder than the ones from under the groundsheet.

Do a pre - glasto test and put a can in a shaded part of your garden overnight and cover it.

[russelljmunn]

supposed to work better if you wrap a wet cloth round each can, as the wet cloth stops the cold moisture on the can evaporating, but I have never tried this, as without the cloth is always cold enough for me.

[Funkfarley]

I've spent much of my adult life pondering this exact same question and so far have not come across a good, free solution that will stand up to the 5 days of sunshine we experience at Glastonbury.

There is one method that I've always wanted to try though but my inherent laziness has always prevented me from doing so:

1. Dig hole about 15cm deep, and about 70cm2 in the porch of your tent.

2. Line said hole with a non-permeable material of your choice.

3. Fill hole with water.

4. Place beer/cider cans in your water filled trench.

5. Build lid for hole out of wood and cover lid with a reflective material (i.e. tin foil or one of those emergency blankets). (Remember to get an adult to help you with the cutting of the material).

6. Place lid on top of your ramshackle fridge.

In theory the reflective lid should keep the heat away from the top and the coolness in from the bottom and because your beer is below ground level it should stay fairly cool. It also doubles up as a handy hiding place to keep your beer safe.

Having said all of that, I have no scientific knowledge to be able to say for sure whether this will work.

The main flaw in this plan though is that it takes a degree of craftsmanship and a certain amount of effort to construct the underground fridge, and I've never been sober enough at Glastonbury to possess such characteristics.

[mouth]

I put beer in my in the porch area of my tent. Granted I don't get a freezing beer but it is cool and is far from warm. Never had a problem.

[Mr_Grump]

Freezing beer in cans isn't usually a problem - freezing beer in glass (which I know we can't take) or hard plastic bottles will cause a nasty mess in your freezer.

The reason for this is that when beer freezes it expands. Cans are designed to handle pressure and the freezing process puts additional pressure on the can but doesn't 'pop'. Cans are also 'flexible' & can expand to accommodate the extra volume

Bottles however are a different matter - as the beer freezes, glass & hard plastic do not expand & the pressure and extra volume 'pops' the bottle top.

I've had first hand experience of this with San Miguel whilst in Spain where we forgot about some bottles & cans that we put in the freezer & forgot about - the cans were ace, the bottles were a mess!!!

[Chimps in Balaclavas]

The only downside to frozen beer is when it thaws out it's flat.

[swell]

cheers for the input peeps, keep forgetting to respond to this thread, the can of carlsberg was removed from the freezer approximately 36 hours later, still intact/rock solid left it to fore out and drunk it didn't notice any difference in taste flatness etc which was one of my concerns (mind you carlsbergs a bit flat a rank normally ) does anyone else know if freezing can make beer go flat?? thinking a couple of frozen crates in cool bag/ boxes would be about ripe for Fri/Sat, chilled brews with some ice packs and other frozen bits for Wed/Thurs prob solved Will take some space blankets and a spade as backup am shocked at the amount of people willing/prepared to drink beer at room temperature /lukewarm/a little bit cool etc

[ukslim]

On frozen beer going flat:

Seems like you're experimenting, which if properly controlled will always give the best answer. Have a control sample, do a blind tasting.

However, without doing the experiment, I think:

- if the can retains its shape, then any CO2 dissolved in the beer will remain there, so the fizz won't be lost.

- if the expansion due to freezing causes the can to expand (most likely the concave bottom part popping out) then there will be space for CO2 to escape into, causing a loss of fizz.

[StoneCircle]

cheers for the input peeps, keep forgetting to respond to this thread, the can of carlsberg was removed from the freezer approximately 36 hours later, still intact/rock solid left it to fore out and drunk it didn't notice any difference in taste flatness etc which was one of my concerns (mind you carlsbergs a bit flat a rank normally ) does anyone else know if freezing can make beer go flat?? thinking a couple of frozen crates in cool bag/ boxes would be about ripe for Fri/Sat, chilled brews with some ice packs and other frozen bits for Wed/Thurs prob solved Will take some space blankets and a spade as backup am shocked at the amount of people willing/prepared to drink beer at room temperature /lukewarm/a little bit cool etc

[r0cky]

I too can't drink warm beer! So have either taken red wine and cider, or my Igoo Maxcold. What I do is freeze 2litre bottles of water, and also a few 0.5litre ones to fill in some gaps. That way, when the water has melted, I can drink it as well. Always useful to have some water you'd forgotten about on the Monday.

I've still had some ice left by the Sunday, but I do cover the Igloo MaxCold with a blanket, and try to minimize the number of times I open it. Probably a good idea to wrap a space blanket around it, as well as a normal blanket.

Prefrozen beer cans (if they can survive the expansion), should be a winner there!

[mynameisearl]

I leave my crate on the groundsheet and put a space blanket over it (but don't tuck the space blanket fully underneath the crate) and that tends to give me cans which have a slight chill to them.

[Mellon collie]

Apparently the igloo cool boxes work better when "pre chilled" the day before fill it up cold water and lots of ice to chill the air in the insulation foam.

also if you are only taking spirits juice cans of beer put them in the fridge first and filling it up with some iced water will help keep everything cool once the ice melts.

I am thinking of getting one of the igloo cube rollers 70qt for festivals when i have better and quicker access

[Glazieyes]

For the past few years at elec picnic and Oxegen I Have gotten two large coolbags and four 1 litre bottles of water which I froze solid, two for each bag, have 24 beer / cider in each bag with 2 of the frozen bottles in each, if you make sure that the second bag isn'y opened until it is needed, usually Sat afternoon/evening, they WILL remain cold, as well as this you will have a few very nice refreshingly cold bottles of water each morning to rehydrate! I also usually refrigerate my beer/cider overnight also so its going in with the Ice already cold.

You can also add to this some premixed frozen spirits, vodka cranberry or s'thing like that, I usually do 2 parts water and 1 part vodka and freeze it for vodka water slushies for the evening but thats because i'm a bit of an animal lol!