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Modern Day Pond and Lake Ice Harvests in America

I got it into my head that I want to see a pond or lake ice harvest, despite my contempt for winter.

Commercial ice harvests changed the cocktail landscape in America in the early-mid 1800s, allowing for the creation of juleps and cobblers and the popularization of the drinking straw and the cocktail shaker.

Today there is still ice harvesting on many American lakes and ponds. As far as I can tell it's more historic reenactment more than practical, with most of the places that have an ice harvest limited to a single day of the year.

Most places bring out the old tools – the long saws and the hooks – and allow people to cut up pre-scored sections of ice. Then they float it to the collection point on the lake, grab it with a hook, and slide it on a series of ramps (or sometimes pull it with a horse or tractor) into an ice house, where the blocks of ice are stacked with layers of sawdust in between.

I was looking for one that I might visit and came up with several places, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you live nearby.

Note that I first compiled this list several years ago so it's highly likely that not all of these places are still doing ice harvests.

Modern Ice Harvests

– Tobyhanna ice harvest – Near the Steamtown National Historic Site near Scranton, Pennsylvania. They run a train to the ice harvest. A write-up on the harvest is here.

– Howell Living History Farm – in Lambertville, New Jersey. I believe the ice harvest date is January 28th. In addition to harvesting, you can make ice cream with the ice. Information from last year is here.

– Curran Homestead – Located near Bangor, Maine. The next Ice harvest is on February 11, 2012.

– Cape Pond Ice – This is not an ice harvesting location, but a modern manufactured ice house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They offer tours.

– Thompson Ice House - Located in South Bristol, Maine, which looks pretty far out there. The ice harvest is in February but the date hasn't been announced yet.

– Hanford Mills Museum – Not far from Cooperstown or Oneonta, New York. The 2012 ice harvest is on February 4, 2012. Besides the ice harvest there are vintage cooking demonstrations and lots of food for sale.

– Brookfield Ice Harvest – In Brookfield, Vermont, a ways from Burlington. Not sure of the website or the exact date, but last year it was January 29. Call 802-276-3959 for information. Some details here. "Activities include ice cutting and ice boom demonstrations, an ice-hauling contest, a chance to try hand-made snowshoes and view ice sculpting."

- Longfellow's Wayside Inn – In Sudbury, Massachusetts. Nothing on the calendar yet, but last year they did ice harvesting.

- Old Sturbridge Village – In central Massachussetts. Had ice harvest demos in the past, I don't see any on the calendar for 2012.

- Ice Alaska – This is more of an ice carving celebration/competition near Fairbanks. The park is open February 28 – March 25, 2012. They harvest ice from an on-site pond with a more modern tool that looks like a saw on legs. I don't know if the ice harvest is demonstrated for the public or not.

I haven't seen any case where it's a public event, but some Amish people harvest ice. There are some good write-ups online.

Saranac Lake Winter Carnival in upstate New York builds an ice palace every year and cuts ice using a 1930s power saw. A good article with pictures is here. (Thanks to commenter Climber9 for the tip.) I'm not sure if the ice harvest is open to the public or not.

Thanks to Kevin Sargent for pointing out the following additional ice harvests in New Hampshire:

Muster Field Farm in North Sutton, New Hampshire, has an annual ice harvest on its calendar of events.

Squam Lakes in Holderness, New Hampshire has an annual ice harvest operated by "Rockywold-Deephaven Camps along with David White, of the White Forest Farm." I'm not sure if it's open to the public but check the link to see.

The Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm in Tamworth Village, NH has an annual Ice Harvest & Winter Carnival.

Kline Creek Farm in Winfield, Illinois has an annual ice harvest. In 2019 it was Feb 1-3. (Thank you Holly.)

Please let me know in the comments if you find any others.

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

January 16, 2012
How Machine Ice Is Made

These are a few ways that ice was and is made, which I learned from the awesome book Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell.

Slushie Method

The first way is just like making ice cream the old-fashioned way: snow or cold water mixed with salt can become colder than freezing. So if you put a cup full of water (or ice cream ingredients) and stir the supercooled salt/water mixture around it, the water in the cup can turn to ice.

Expansion of Gases

As vapor and expands into a large space the molecules speed up, and to do so they take heat from the surrounding environment. This is similar to how evaporation of sweat cools you off – the liquid turns to gas and expands into the air.

Early ice machines taking advantage of this property used pistons that compressed air then released the pressure. The air expansion would pull heat from its surroundings – in this case a container of salt water – and that salt water would turn a pan of water into ice.

The next generation of ice machines used other gases instead of plain air- ether and ammonia for example. They still do.

Vintage Block Making

The Ice book also described an ice block-making operation from the Millersburg Ice Company in Ohio. They use large metal pans filled with city water that are lowered into a lake of salt water cooled to 12 degrees Fahrenheit. The pans of water then freeze from the outside-in.

Into the center of each pan they put an air hose to keep the water moving. As ice likes to be a pure crystal, the ice forming first is crystal clear, leaving most of the minerals in the water trapped in the liquid center portion. Before the block of ice fully freezes, they suck out the mineraly water and replace it with more city water. They say it looks less cloudy this way, though the center core is still a bit cloudy.

Making Ice Cubes – Bag Ice Method

Some commercial ice machines make ice in the following way: Water runs across vertically-positioned, cooled plates. Ice forms on the surface. When it reaches the desired thickness, they poke it with knobs that break it up into cubes. This ice is bagged and sold.

Making Ice Cubes – Clear Method

Other ice machines make clear cubes in the following way: Regular water is sprayed upwards onto cooled plates. The plates are cooled only to 32 degrees Fahrenheit – freezing temperature. At this temperature water freezes but minerals generally do not, thus the minerals drain off while the ice that freezes is nice and clear.

Making Flaked Ice

Flaked ice is the kind you see at fish markets- smaller than cubes but less dense than crushed ice. This is made in a machine that sprays water onto a cooled, rotating drum. After just a thin layer of ice forms, the ice falls off the drum and shatters.

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

January 13, 2012
Carbonation Science

I was lucky enough to get a sample of the Perlini cocktail carbonating system, but before I even got around to using it I was fascinated by carbonation information the instruction manual.

Note: Yes, I read the instruction manuals. Pretty much always.

The Perlini is basically a cocktail shaker than you fill with carbon dioxide (CO2), then shake and pour. The manual comes with tips both for using the shaker, and also about carbonation in general.

So here are some things I learned:

– The amount of CO2 that will go into solution is controlled by pressure and temperature. The higher the pressure, the more CO2 fits. Obviously when you release the pressure (such as opening a bottle of a carbonated beverage) the pressure equalizes and the carbon dioxide comes out of solution.

– The colder the temperature of the liquid, the more CO2 can go into solution. Thus in the case of the Perlini, you add ice to the cocktail shaker. You can also chill the liquids in advance and not use ice (though the shaker is optimized for ice).

– To keep the carbon dioxide in solution, we want to minimize the amount of bubbles that form and carry CO2 out of solution. Bubbles form when microscopic pockets of gas are found in imperfections in a piece of glassware (note that in a champagne flute most bubbles form a stream from certain points at the bottom and sides of the glass) or in debris (solids) in the drink. These imperfections and solids are called nucleation points. The CO2 diffuses into these tiny pockets and blows them into bubbles, which are buoyant and float to the top and release the CO2 into the air.

– Your tongue has lots of nucleation sites for bubbles to form, and that's where we like them as it tingles. So we're trying to keep the CO2 dissolved into liquid until it hits our tongue.

– When using the Perlini (or say if you wanted to create a bottled soda) you want top keep nucleation sites out of the container. Thus you want to avoid having solids (like bits of citrus from fresh juices- strain them instead).

– Also, the surface area of ice has lots of nucleation points. So you want to decrease the total surface area of ice, by using larger cubes rather than chipped ice.

– The Perlini is meant to be shaken like a cocktail shaker, but when you do this bubbles form in the shaker. Thus they recommend waiting until the bubbles settle down before cracking open the shaker- otherwise it can foam over. Viscious liquids (liqueurs, milk) will hold bubbles for longer, so you need to wait longer for the shaker to settle before depressurizing.

– You're also not supposed to strain the liquid coming out of the strainer when you pour the cocktail. There is a built-in strainer to keep the ice out of the drink, but double-straining will add more nucleation points and fizz while you're pouring it through the strainer. Instead, strain any drink before putting it in the shaker. This cuts down on nucleation points from the pulp, etc. before you shake it. Also, pouring it on new ice will increase nucleation points as well.

– Carbonated beverages taste more tart than non-carbonated beverages. This is because CO2 dissolved into water produces carbonic acid, which itself is flavorless but somehow adds the perception of tartness.

– To adjust for the above, you should adjust citrus cocktail recipes towards the sweeter side so they come into balance when carbonated.

– Egg white (and other high-protein) drinks are going to be problematic as they are very foamy.

– "The acidity from the carbonic acid can interact with the tannins of wood-aged spirits in a way that emphasizes acerbic notes in their flavor profi les, requiring extra care in optimizing recipes." Weird.

I am excited to crack this thing open and give it a try. I am especially curious to experiment on how carbonation affects the perception of tartness and tannins!

January 4, 2012
How Water Freezes

This post is about how a lake freezes, but it should be more or less the same for how an insulated container freezes in a freezer. The information is from the excellent book, Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell.

Turnover

As temperatures lower, the water in a lake "turns over." The top layer of water is heated by the sun during the day and is therefore warmer and lighter than the layers below it. At night without the sun, the cool air above the lake cools the top layer of water, which makes it denser than the layers beneath it. The top layer of water sinks. The new top layer gets colder until it too sinks. This is repeated until the top part of the water column reaches the same cool temperature.

This temperature is not the freezing temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, but 39 degrees. That's the temperature at which water is at its densest and heaviest. This also means that water contracts at this temperature and takes up the least space.

Latent Heat of Fusion

After the lake has reached 39 degrees throughout the top part of the water column, as the cold air above it sinks to a lower temperature than the water, the water cools off to below 39 degrees. Now, however, the water getting colder makes it lighter than the 39 degree water below it, so the water no longer turns over. It stays on top and continues to cool until freezing.

For water at 32 degrees to convert to ice at 32 degrees, a lot of energy must be given up. Normally it takes 1 calorie of energy to change the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius, but when water is changing phases to ice, it must give up nearly nearly 80 calories of energy to change phase without changing temperature at all.

Sometimes as the water is giving up the 'latent heat' to change phases, little wisps of fog are visible above the water's surface.

Nucleation

In most cases, ice crystals form at a nucleation point: a bit of something around which an ice crystal builds. This is often an impurity in the water, and in a lake can be dirt, snow, or even rain.

The ice crystals that form initially can be in weird shapes across the surface of the water rather than an even grid pattern.

Lakes tend to freeze from the outside-in, as nucleation points are on the shore and the water isn't as deep there. I assume that ice cube trays would also freeze from the outside-in as the nucleation point would be spots along the side of the tray.

Clear Ice

Clear ice on a lake is an indication that it froze slowly. As ice crystals form, the crystal lattice is is tight and there isn't room for impurities to fit inside it. (Ironic since impurities are usually needed to start the crystallization process.) Thus slow-freezing ice rejects impurities including air, minerals, and salts, and pushes them out of the way.

This is why the last part of the ice to freeze is where any trapped air and impurities are. Most ice cubes are cloudy in the middle because the water is freezing on all four sides of the container; outside-in. On a lake or by using an insulated cooler in the freezer at home, the only coldness is coming from the top.

In a lake the water doesn't freeze all the way to the bottom so lake ice is very clear – the impurities and air are beneath it still in the liquid. In a cooler in the freezer, the cloudy part of the ice is only on the bottom – the last place that freezes.

More Freezing

After the ice crystals have formed on the surface, they eventually start growing down, thickening the ice. But as the ice thickens, the water beneath it turns into ice at a slower pace. This is because ice is a poor conductor of heat, so the thicker the ice, the further the distance the latent heat of freezing has to get to the cold air above the pond. In other words, the rate of freezing slows the thicker the ice.

Saltwater

When sea ice freezes, most of the impurities – the salt- is pushed out of the freezing ice towards the bottom of the ocean. But about one-fifth of of the salt stays in pockets between crystals, in little capillaries.

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

January 3, 2012
2011: My Year in Cocktail Writing
Looking over the year (read: sending invoices) for 2011, it turns out that I managed to get a lot of work done in between all the trips.

This year I contributed to:
- FineCooking.com as the weekly cocktail blogger
- Mixology Magazine in Germany
- The LA Times Magazine
- Caviar Affair Magazine
- SilverKris (Singapore Airlines)
- Penthouse Magazine
- The San Francisco Chronicle
- 7×7 Magazine
- Tasting Panel Magazine
- TastingTable.com
- Drink Magazine (China)
- Sunset Magazine
- Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine
- DiffordsGuide/ CLASS Magazine
- ShakeStir.com
- Drinks International
- The Bold Italic
Plus, I blogged every day here on Alcademics.com and worked on both the Solid Liquids Project and the Sugar Spirit Project.

I spoke at several conferences this year including Vino 2011, SF Chefs, and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association, covered cocktail competitions in France, Spain, and India, and judged them in Vegas and San Francisco.

So, I guess that was a pretty productive year! Thanks again for reading all my blatherings.
January 2, 2012
2011: A Year of Spirituous Travel
In 2011, I traveled to 12 foreign countries not counting repeats on 22 different trips, flying 156,000 miles to do so. I had a mere 80 nights in hotel rooms and one or two hangovers.

My trips this year were:
- Vino 2011 in NYC
- Jameson Irish Whiskey in Ireland
- Casa Noble Tequila in Mexico
- Angostura Bitters/Rum in Trinidad
- Pioneers of Mixology in Los Angeles
- Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America in Orlando
- Bacardi Global Legacy Cocktail Competition in London and Spain
- Bombay Sapphire Botanicals in London and Italy
- Karlsson's Vodka in Sweden
- G'Vine Gin Connoisseur Competition in France
- Diageo World Class Competition in India
- Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans
- ZU Vodka in Poland
- Purity Vodka in Sweden
- Cherry Heering in Copenhagen
- Bombay Sapphire/GQ Most Inspired Bartender Competition in Las Vegas
- DonQ Rum in Puerto Rico
- Pallini Limoncello in Italy
- Cointreau in France
- Auchentoshan Switch Competition in Las Vegas
- Yamazaki Whisky in Japan
- Taste of the Times Event in Los Angeles
I am hoping for a more localized but equally awesome 2012.
January 2, 2012
Instant Infusions in Tasting Panel Magazine

I have a short piece in Tasting Panel Magazine about the instant infusion method – using a whipped cream charger filled with nitrous oxide to infuse flavors in spirits – and Purity Vodka's promotion of the technique.

The story is at this link, which opens a digital magazine reader.

By the way, the original Dave Arnold post annoucing this method is here at CookingIssues.com.

December 21, 2011
Trends in Craft Beer in SilverKris Magazine

My editor at SilverKris, the inflight magazine for Singapore Airlines, emailed me something like, "I hear craft beer is becoming popular. Can you do a story on that?"

"Sure," I said, knowing that boiling down everything going on with craft beer into even a feature-length story was going to be incredibly difficult.

The story kind of kicked my ass but taught me a lot about beer. I have a feeling for the trends but not a lot of knowledge of the technical details behind the beer styles so this involved a lot of research.

Anyway, I mushed things into categories like Belgian, barleywine, saison, session, flavored, high-alcohol, sparkling, canned, and casked.

The story is online in one of those online magazine reader formats at this link.

December 20, 2011
New Fernets in the San Francisco Chronicle

In the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, December 18th, I have a story on the category of fernet.

Leopold Brothers has a modern formulation of fernet that should be hitting story shelves this Wednesday afternoon, and Tempus Fugit Spirits has a vintage recreation of fernet coming in the new year.

(Photo by John Storey)

From the story:

While many people call for the bitter liqueur Fernet-Branca by the shorthand "Fernet," they should probably specify "Branca." Fernet is not a single product but a type of spirit, and its ranks are about to become more populated.

Angelico Fernet, from local importers Tempus Fugit Spirits of Novato, launches early next year, while Fernet Leopold, from Leopold Bros. of Denver, should be available this week. They join examples from Stock, Luxardo and R. Jelinek.

At the end of the story, there is a delicious cocktail from Darren Crawford of Bourbon & Branch and Tony Nik's and Scott Brody of Per Diem. It contains fernet, Carpano vermouth, Domaine de Canton, lime juice, and ginger beer.

Go read it!

(Photo by Erick Wong)

December 19, 2011
Japanese Bartending Story

I have a short piece in the new issue of Caviar Affair magazine describing the influence of Japanese bartending on the rest of the world.

The magazine also has lots of pricey booze recomendations, stories about port and cognac, and a few bartenders you may know.

The digital version of the magazine is at this link, and my Japanese bartending story is on page 39.

December 8, 2011