I'm impressed that Michael has a dedicated beer thermometer
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These Stainless Steel Chilling Sticks Won't Cool What You Want
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A quick look at the math side of it seems to indicate that it couldn't work.
First, I'm estimating that the mass of that is ~4/5 lb (360 g) (guessing that the diameter is ~2 cm, and length is about 15 cm, the volume should be ~45 cc; 45 cc steel X 8 g steel/cc steel = 360 g steel).
Per Google, heat capacity of beer is ~4 J/(g*K) and steel is ~0.5 J/(g*K); in other words, it takes 8 times as much energy to raise the temperture of beer one K as it does to raise the temperature of steel one K.
Now, assuming that the temperature of the freezer is -10 C (which is rather cold), and that the beer is at 25 C, and that the mass of the beer after pouring some out to make space is ~3/5 lb...
the temperature of the beer should be dropping about 1 degree for every 6 degrees that the steel heats up, so its final temperature will be the initial temperature minus one seventh of the differential, or 25 C - 5 C = 20 C.
The ways to really change this are (a) getting a much colder freezer, (b) getting a higher heat capacity cooling stick, or (c) reducing the ratio of beer to cooling stick.
Now, as far as salt in icewater (Bridgman's comment) goes:
Yes, that's correct if your icewater really is a mix of water and enough ice (some people refer to very cold water without ice as "icewater").
The reason is that saltwater freezes at a lower temperature, so the ice will melt and absorb heat until the temperature drops t the freezing point of saltwater.
(I'm not a beer drinker; I just find the math and science very interesting.)
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The article's subject matter lost me when it said 'pouring off a bit of beer' =D. Cant afford to waste tastey luxury beverages where I'm from. It's already costing $10 a litre for German imports like Weihan when it should be in mah bellyyyyyy!
Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably cheaper to just have someone mail me a couple cases via express shipping than rely on the local stores.Hi
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