This weekend, I inadvertently performed an experiment with bottled beer. I happen to have a large surplus of bottled beer at the moment. While I'm bravely making headway, some of the beer has been forced to sit out on top of the refrigerator. Thus, it has been exposed to temperatures below the freezing point of water. Most of the beers were unaffected by the chill temperatures. Strangely, though, bottles of Miller Genuine Draft were half frozen, while bottles of MGD Light in the same six-pack holder were unaffected. What gives?Everything I can think of about Light beer should indicate that it freezes at a higher temperature than regular beer. Regular beer has more alcohol, more carbohydrates, and so on. Yet, the MDG froze first. Anyone have any theories?
5 comments:
Middle Bro said...
two words COLD FILTERED. The only difference is in the processing. By cold filtering the beer instead of the traditional pastuerizing, something is happening that allows the alcohol and water to seperate more easily.
I don't buy it. There shouldn't be anything that heating can do to make it difficult to freeze the water out of a solution of ethanol in water. Besides, isn't MGD Lite cold filtered?
I'm trying to think of something that raises the freezing point of a material. Nothing is coming to mind. Any help from the scientists out there?
PS: I've emailed my question to Miller. I'll let you know what they say.
Neither product is pasteurized. I'll see what I can find.
BA
muchas gracias, BA. The world of science awaits your eventual response!
Under identical conditions the GDL should freeze first. It has a slightly lower alcohol content and less carbohydrates. Though the top of your fridge is hardly ideal to conduct such tests. Were some of the bottles near the edge and get more air flow? Did you try and open a GDL? I wouldn't be surprised if it slushed up once you opened it. Did you get any particulate matter formed in the frozen beer? Sometimes you can get hop components to precipitate if the beer is frozen and thawed a few times. If you need some help with your beer experiments, especially in the consumption portion of the testing, give me a call. :-)
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