It doesnt matter whether it’s a summer day in Arizona or if it’s the middle of winter in Wisconsin; you can always accidentally freeze your beer.
We all (I might just be self inserting here) have a bottle of vodka sitting in our freezer at home in case we get the sudden urge to make some pasta with vodka sauce, right? Well, what’s nice about vodka is that you can throw it in the freezer because well alcohol doesnt freeze, right? Wrong! Alcohol freezes! A Vodka with 40% ABV will freeze at -17ºF. So no, you don’t need to rush home and grab that vodka bottle out of the freezer, it’ll be fine because well it turns out that -17ºF is pretty cold.
At what temperature does beer freeze?
While that vodka bottle might freeze at a fairly low temperature, beer is a bit less forgiving with it’s freezing temperature. This means that if you did leave your beer in the freeze to make your famous pasta with beer sauce, you might want to run home and get it out of the freezer. The alcohol content of beer determines the freezing point. Most beers freeze at around 28ºF (-2 ºC). This is assuming the beers ABV% is in the 4-6% range.
User Narnad from Ratebeer.com shared their formula for determining the temperature that a beer will freeze at (What temperature is too cold to keep beer outside? (ratebeer.com)). We hope it makes more sense for you than it did for us. Were beer geeks, not math nerds.
Can you save a frozen beer? What to do with a frozen beer:
Perhaps you forgot to take out your beer from the freezer. Maybe you live in Canada and left your beer outside on a cold winter night. We get it and we’ve done it too.
Safety first: Throw out any frozen beer stored in a glass beer bottle. It is not worth taking any risk if even one shard breaks off of your frozen beer. Blahhh, its almost like watching Saw.
If you catch your beer while it is just slightly frozen you should be good to go to consume it. It definitely won’t be the beer the brewer intended for you to drink because freezing it is going to alter the flavor, aroma, and texture of the beer. But you might as well give it a shot right? Whats the worst that could happen? Most of the time the beer will taste flat, generally just sort of off, and have a weird slushy texture to it. In addition, a partially frozen beer can have a higher ABV as well. If you remove the ice slushy from the beer, you’re basically just removing excess water which causes the alcohol by volume to increase.The actual amount of alcohol in the beer is the same, just the ratio changes (so no this isn’t a weird hack to get more booze out of the beer, if you want that just go ahead and throw a shot of mezcal in the beer)
At what temperature does beer freeze and explode?
Do beer cans explode?
“If you go to the grocery store to buy milk and leave it in your car for two days, then drink it, you’re going to get sick,” he said. Regardless of whether you agree with Ruta or not, the larger takeaway here is clear: Whether by accident or somewhat by design, beer cans can—on very rare occasions—explode under some conditions.
What are the negative effects of drinking beer?
Drinking high amounts of beer can cause, blackouts, drowsiness, low blood sugar and vomiting. Drinking large amounts of beer during a long period of time, can cause many serious health problems, including dependence, liver problems, and certain types of cancer.
Why do beer cans explode when they freeze?
The main reason beer cans or bottles explode when they freeze is the expansion of water as it turns into ice. Since beer contains water, it follows the same principle. When beer freezes, the water content expands, causing the pressure inside the bottle or can to increase.
How do you know if a beer can is exploding?
Over time, check for pressure and distension by simply squeezing the can by hand. Cans are rated to withstand common beer-carbonation volumes at elevated temperatures. Exploding cans are likely due to refermentation after packaging, which creates an initial increase in carbonation made worse with elevated temperatures.