Frozen Corona?

[mmm...kyle]

Thought this was pretty much the best section for this, so here goes:

A couple of weeks back I was out in the park with a couple of friends playing football. One of them ran in to get a few bottles of corona that had been in the freezer, he brought them out with a slice of lime in the top.
'Ooooh lovely cold corona' I thought. So I pushed the lime down and...Bam! The entire bottle freezes instantly, now this made me a little sad as I had to wait a few extra minutes for enough to melt before I could drink it.
So... anyone know why this little reaction happened?

[pixelbend]

A more scientific TFPer will probably be able to clarify or disprove this, but I think that the alcohol in the Corona allows it to reach sub-freezing temperatures (i.e. below 32F). The water molocules in the Corona is seperated buy the alcohol and can't get together to form ice. The lime (or any solid object for that matter) breaks the surface tension enough to allow some of the water molecules to latch onto each other and the whole thing freezes.

That's just my best scientific guess. You should try putting salt in one. It errupts in fizz.

[ratbastid]

There are all sorts of neat effects you can cause with superheated or supercooled fluids.

The bottom line of it is, alcohol acts like an antifreeze (though it's a little surprising to me that beer has enough alcohol in it, compared to its water content, to cause the effect). My guess is that the lime juice cut the alcohol enough to overcome its antifreeze effect and flash-freeze the whole bottle. I don't think it's about surface tension so much as alcohol content.

You can nuke a glass of distilled water well over the boiling point, by the way. Without any impurities in the water, there are no nucleation points for the bubbling and evaporation to start. Then if you drop any object into the water, it'll burst into furious boiling in a fairly explosive way. Obviously this is best done in a lab with some safety equipment...

[Charlatan]

Originally Posted by ratbastid

You can nuke a glass of distilled water well over the boiling point, by the way. Without any impurities in the water, there are no nucleation points for the bubbling and evaporation to start. Then if you drop any object into the water, it'll burst into furious boiling in a fairly explosive way. Obviously this is best done in a lab with some safety equipment...

Saw them do this on Mythbusters... safety equipment is a definate must.

[mmm...kyle]

My initial guess was that the alcohol allowed it to go below the freezing temp of water, and that the introduction of the lime sorta interrupted this, but I really didnt pay enough attention during science to know if this was correct.
Its a cool little thing, altho slightly annoying if you want to drink the beer straight away.
Cheers people!

[hossified]

that happens with other beers too (up here in canada.....must be the stronger beer!)......it usually doesn't even take a lime, sometimes you can just open it and it will turn to slush right away.....I have heard that the air and pressure change causes the beer to freeze instantly...

[Daniel_]

Both cases are the same.

The beer is just a fraction OVER its freezing point (which is below zeroC because of the alcohol, but not much below zeroC).

The lime (or taking the top off) causes the CO2 to come out (fizz).

This takes energy - and the only place that the energy can come from is a temperature drop.

Therefore the beer ices.

[Pip]

I've seen it happen several times with supercooled sodas too, the alcohol has nothing to do with it. The alcohol percentage stays the same after it's opened right?

I managed to superheat a cup of water once, nuked it in the microwave and dropped a teabag in it.... frosh! Never ever re-nuke something that you nuked then forgot about, take it out and stir a bit first...

[pixelbend]

But you can put a bottled Coke in the freezer and then come back and see brown ice in the bottle. Not so with a beer. It won't freeze until you at least open it.

[Redlemon]

Originally Posted by pixelbend

But you can put a bottled Coke in the freezer and then come back and see brown ice in the bottle. Not so with a beer. It won't freeze until you at least open it.

Incorrect; my mom has exploded many bottles of beer in our freezer, when she puts it in for "just a quick chill", then forgets.

[pixelbend]

Maybe it depends on the beer? Or maybe I have never forgot about one for that long

[pixelbend]

http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/BeerFreeze.html

Interesting!

[Anxst]

The web page above has it correct. Since the pressure in the beer drops, the temperature must also drop when you open it, since the volume stays the same. So, opening it causes it to suddenly freeze.

[flobadon]

It works with darker beers like Guinness as well. I do not advise drinking Guinness slushies, however. Not as good as it sounds.

[mmm...kyle]

Originally Posted by flobadon

It works with darker beers like Guinness as well. I do not advise drinking Guinness slushies, however. Not as good as it sounds.

Reminded me of this on b3ta a while back.
Have to say, I dont think a Guiness slushie/ice lolly would be my first choice for reshreshment on a hot day

[rsl12]

The pressure argument doesn't sound right. The beer was open, with a lime on top, and not frozen *until* he put the lime in, right?

[Daniel_]

Originally Posted by rsl12

The pressure argument doesn't sound right. The beer was open, with a lime on top, and not frozen *until* he put the lime in, right?

As I said - the lime causes the beer to outgas - the outgassing costs energy - the only place for that energy to come fr is a drop in the temperature - also the freezing point is reduced by disolved carbon dioxide, so removing the CO2 makes the beer colder AND easier to freeze.

Result = push the lime in and it turns to a beer slushie.

[cca2k1]