The thermometer begins to get out of hand… The 20 degrees become a thing of the past and the counter keeps adding up… The 30 degrees appear frequently and, although the 40 degrees are not there yet, it may end up waiting for them.
Given this situation and with the recently purchased beer, it is a temptation use the freezer to quickly chill the beer, product to which the heat feels terrible and that to us, when we need something refreshing, we entrust ourselves without reference.
Although among the ironies of the rehydrating products are hot coffees and teas, the reality is that appetite takes us rather towards fresh land. It doesn’t matter what kind of beer we’re talking about —even without alcohol or 0.0%— almost all of them will be better cooler.
There are rarities, very britishsuch as porters and stouts, which do not need extreme cold to be tasted, but obviously They are not beers to buckle up at a Sevillian noon or to a Spanish summer.
Why not put the beer in the freezer (for physics reasons)
The first big reason to try to chill beer in the freezer is to think that we are going to get it fast. Unfortunately, if we have hot beer —or at room temperature— and we put our cans, bottles or small bottles in the freezer, the only thing we are going to get is charge us what we already have inside.
Even taking it out will be a bad idea for something as simple as thermal equilibrium. If we have chicken breasts and croquettes in the freezer at -24º and, suddenly, we put a dozen cans of beer at 20º Celsius, the only thing we are going to achieve is going to be raise the temperature of what is already inside and, in addition, without excessively cooling the beers of rigor.
Who says beers says any other drink — soft drinks, juice, water, champagne — reasons why physics advises us against try to quickly cool any product that is at a high temperature.
These physical issues also have an added problem: the risk of bursting. Let’s think about what happens to our chicken fillets or our fish when we freeze it, when the water in the cells expands during freezing.
Now let’s take a beer, which is 95% water — it depends on the beer, but around that amount — and put it in the freezer, increasing the risk that it will expand in size and that, in extreme cases, can mean breaking the glass or the container that contains it.
Why not put the beer in the freezer (for taste reasons)
Physics has already told us that let’s not forget to put the warm or hot beer in the freezer, but now we are going to put ourselves in another scenario: an empty freezer, beer at an acceptable temperature (about 10º centigrade) and a rush to cool the beer too much.
Now it is the palate that dictates the reasons why not to put the beer in the freezer. Basically, unless we are very attentive and let’s take it out just about 40 minutes after doing itthe beer will begin to freeze.
When this happens we must be clear that the beer once frozen is spoiled. First because having a little alcohol, it takes longer to freeze. second because the beer has carbon and when the beer freezes, part of that carbon and that bubble is lost, which is why a thawed beer tends to be very flat with no bubbles.
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In addition, as beer is mainly made up of water and alcohol, both components mark different paths. When freezing, what is becoming ice crystals is water, so we will be separating the alcohol from the water during this process.
Of course, beer – and any frozen or semi-frozen drink – is also not palatable because the ice crystals turns into a kind of flakes They are also not very easy to drink.
If we want to quickly cool the beer, it is much better to follow the old trick of the tub with water and salt. Much more effective and less harmful to our favorite drink.
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