Frozen Beer

A molecular look at instantly freezing a beer.

Introduction
This is not a new trick, I just think it is really neat and I wanted to
take a molecular look at whats happening during the process.
We will take a look at a super-cooled beer that rapidly freezes. I
will discuss what kinds of processes are taking place and how
much energy is being transferred.

Watch The Magic

Place a beer in the fridge for about 2 hours, pull it out, slam it down on a
countertop and watch as it freezes solid right before your eyes.

Here is a video of freezing beer instantly:

Watch the video

and then click to
advance slide.

So Whats Going
Processes:
On?
The first thing that happens is that the water in the beer is super cooled, meaning that
it is below freezing point. It hasnt frozen yet because there is no texture that provides a
seed for ice crystals to form. When you slam the beer on the counter-top the liquid is
agitated releasing carbon dioxide gas making bubbles. These bubbles provide the seeds
for ice crystals to form.
There are different types of processes such as physical or chemical. When the process is
complete you are left with the same material as you began with, making this a physical
process. The process is referred to as a phase change. The water is still water, only in its
solid phase. The bonds between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms remain intact, but the
molecules rearrange themselves in an orderly, rigid, crystalline structure.
The two common reaction types are exothermic and endothermic. This reaction is an
exothermic reaction because heat energy is leaving the system to the surroundings.
Endothermic reactions absorb energy exciting atoms while exothermic reactions release
energy slowing atomic movement. When the H2O molecules lose their kinetic energy
and slow down, it allows hydrogen bonding to become the dominate acting force, the
negatively charged oxygen atoms being attracted to the positively charged Hydrogen
atoms, holding the molecules firmly in a crystalline structure.

Energy

With every reaction there is a transfer of energy from or to a closed system,

observing the law of energy conservation. Energy can neither be created nor
destroyed, only transferred. So the question is how much energy is transferred in
the process of rapidly freezing a beer?

One common unit of measure for energy in chemistry is the Joule.

J =kg*m^2/s^2 =N*m =Pa*m^3 =W*s =C*V

There are 354.882g in a 12oz. Bottle of beer, and we are realizing that beer is
mostly water. It requires 334.774 Joules per gram of water to convert liquid water at
0C to ice. 354.882g*334.774J= 118805.2667J, or 118.8kJ.

118.8kJ in terms of Watts is enough energy to power a 40W light bulb for about 50
minutes.

Just for fun, lets find how much energy is transferred is involved in freezing a 12
Pack of beer?

12beers * 355g. / 1beer*334J / 1g. * 1kJ / 1000J = 1,422.84kJ which is equal to

almost 9 hours of lighted time for a 45W bulb.

Conclusion

We found that there is as much energy transferred in freezing as there is in lighting a

40W bulb for 50 minutes. We found that freezing a beer is a physical, exothermic
reaction. The one question that I did not address was why the beer freezes so rapidly
after the initiation of the process. When the beer is not disturbed during the cooling
process there are no nucleation sites for seed crystals to form. As a result freezing of
the beer is delayed for a short time. For this trick to work properly the timing must
be good, just before freezing begins to occur naturally. At this time most all of the
liquid has reached freezing temperature and so when a nucleation site is provided, it
all simply just converts to its solid state.

It takes approximately two hours of freezer time for this trick to work and is worth a
try. This can be done with virtually any soda, beer, or water.

Chemistry can be fun!

Citations

"Supercooled Beer Freezes Instantly in 1080p." Yahoo Video Search.

N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.