Category: ice

Make Amazing Frozen Liquor Bottle Displays using Directional Freezing

Using just a cooler, a makeshift stand, and a bottle you can make cool-looking displays for home, parties, or the bar.

If you're just getting started into ice nerditry, you'll want to check out the Index of Ice Experiments, where you can get a definition of Directional Freezing and see other fun projects.

I previously shared how to do this on this post.

In short: inside an insulated cooler, lay a bottle atop a small riser of some sort (I used a plastic box lid) so that the bottle is raised up a few inches off the bottom.

Fill the cooler with water (tap water is fine) so that it covers the bottle. Leave the top off the cooler and let it freeze. In my home freezer, that takes 3-4 days. Thanks to Directional Freezing, the top part of the cooler (so the front part of the bottle) will be clear, while the bottom (back of the bottle) will have all the cloudiness in it.

You can see from this back view that the plastic riser is still stuck in the back. From the side view, you can see that thanks to directional freezing the top part of the block is super clear (so you can see the front of the bottle), while the back is cloudy. It turns out the cloudy part actually makes a nice backdrop.

Remove it from the cooler than your display is ready to go. I've done this at parties (putting some LED candles in the ice beneath the standing block) and it was a huge hit.

Check out all the ice experiments on Alcademics at this link.

June 26, 2017
Freeze Liquor Bottles Inside an Ice Tube for Better Bottle Service

Using just a cooler, a tube, and a bottle you can a super funky display for your party or for bottle service at your bar.

If you're just getting started into ice nerd stuff, you'll want to check out the Index of Ice Experiments, where you can get a definition of Directional Freezing to see why this works, and see other fun projects.

I originally developed this technique for the bar Whitechapel, which was looking to do a unique Martini cart with frozen bottles.

Simply put a bottle inside a tube of some sort (this is a metal utensil holder like you'd see at a salad bar) and fill both the tube and the rest of the cooler with water. Directional Freezing will take care of making the top part of the ice clear. The cloudy part is all around the bottom of the bottle. If you wanted it 100% clear around the bottle, you'd simply put it on a short riser inside the tube.

Then freeze it (with the top off the cooler) and pull it out.

I did this again with a bottle Zucca as I'm using it for a talk. I no longer had the metal utensil container so I put in a plastic pitcher. I wouldn't say it is the ideal container given that is has irregular sides, but it did the trick for proof of concept.

The bottle is a bit problematically tall for my freezer – I almost couldn't get the cooler out!

Cheers!

Check out all the ice experiments on Alcademics at this link.

June 22, 2017
Fire Inside Ice (Okay, Fireball inside an Ice Ball)

For years, bars including Chicago's Aviary have been serving drinks inside hollow ice balls. The procedure to make one is easy, at least in theory.

Freeze a balloon or an ice ball mold filled with water for a few hours. An ice shell will form on the outside.

Poke a hole in the ice ball and dump out the water. Refill with a (very well chilled) cocktail. Some bars do with a syringe so that you don't have to open a real hole in the ice ball.

Then serve it. I did this at home and thought it would be fun/funny to create Fire Inside Ice – so I filled by ice ball with Fireball cinnamon whiskey.

Then for a bit of a show I filmed dropping it in slow motion. Enjoy.

June 14, 2017
How to Monogram your Ice Cubes with Ice Brands

It happens to everyone: You pick up an ice cube and can't remember if it belongs to you or someone else. Frustrating! If only your cubes were monogrammed there would be less confusion in the world.

Kidding! But I've seen bars around the world imprinting their clear ice cubes with logos and monograms, so I decided to test out some methods of doing so at home.

Three different easily-getable types brands are below, with pros and cons.

If you're new to Alcademics, you'll want to read up on how to make perfectly clear ice first before you start branding it.

Method One: Use a Wax Seal Stamp.

I bought this brass stamp off Amazon. Copper is the best conducting metal, and I think that's what the bars use to do branded ice in volume, but I found this brass one can easily imprint ice without being heated.

One downside is that there are only fancy versions of letters and symbols available. Oddly, there seems to be a lot more variety/simpler designs for steak brands than for wax seals stamps. The other downside is that it doesn't stamp the ice very deeply.

But still, this is my favorite of the three branding methods.

Method Two: Use a Steak Branding Iron.

I bought this one, with an A for Alcademics. There is a lot of variety in BBQ/steak brands (who knew?) so look around for one that suits your needs.

The downside to this is that the brand does need to be slightly heated. I held this over the flame on my stove for about 2 seconds, so it doesn't take much heat though. You could probably use hot water, or even a lighter!

Method Three: Use a Craft Hobby Tool/Soldering Iron/Woodburning Tool.

I bought this one, plus a set of letters that attach to it.

There are a couple of downsides to this – first, you can only do one letter at a time. Then you have to let it cool down and switch out the letter on the tip before doing the next letter.

Second, the soldering iron gets very hot, so you barely touch it to the ice and it makes a deep imprint. You lose a lot of the subtlety of the letter design.

And third, with the letters/words you have to imprint them backwards.

So this is probably the least clean way to brand your ice, but you can customize it the most with the full alphabet. Then, just for fun, I put back on the basic needle-shaped tip on the soldering iron (that comes with the original iron; no need for add-ons) and wrote some words freehand.

Because I have the maturity of a 15-year old, this is what I made:

But you know, you can make other designs and words freehand that are better suited to adults.

The full index of ice experiments is here – lots of other fun projects with ice.

May 30, 2017
Edible Flowers Frozen in Incredibly Clear Ice Balls

I'm on a mission to freeze everything I can get my hands on into crystal clear ice balls.

To make them clear, I'm using a thermos and ice ball mold – you can read about the method to make clear ice spheres on this post.

In the past, I've made plain clear spheres, spheres with a spiralized lime, and a whole bunch of other lime slices and wedges. It's been fun.

You can see all of the many ice experiments at Alcademics here at the Index of Ice Experiments.

I also bought a bunch of edible flowers and toyed with those. Note that if you're going to reproduce these at home, it's really important to use edible flowers, not regular flowers that may have been coated with pesticides and such.

I started with edible orchids:

I also tried other flowers:

Once again you can read about how to do that here.

And for more pics of my ongoing ice experiments, check out my Instagram page.

You can see all of the many ice experiments at Alcademics here at the Index of Ice Experiments.

May 9, 2017
Gin, Tonic, Ice, and My Tombstone

I recently recorded a video with Cocktail Chemistry's Nick Fisher. Fisher has probably done more to raise awareness of my Directional Freezing technique to make clear ice than anyone, with a slick video he made last year showing the process that's now at nearly 1.5 million views.

Watch or just listen to his video interview with me below, in which I talk about bar trends, how I got into cocktail journalism, the Gin & Tonic book, and of course, big clear ice.

May 5, 2017
All About Ice in the Washington Post

I guess M Carrie Allan is becoming my personal biographer, because in addition to the story I posted yesterday on dangerous drink ingredients in Imbibe Magazine, her story with quotes from me about ice also went live in the Washington Post.

The story is called, You’ve made a good drink. It deserves the perfect ice.

It's an examination of different types of ice and my Directional Freezing technique that makes ice clear. It's good stuff.

Maybe in the future Carrie will write about tonic water history, and then all my pet projects will be covered 🙂

May 2, 2017
Fun with Limes Inside Clear Ice Balls

Using this method of directional freezing (developed here on Alcademics) with thermos containers and ice ball molds to maximize the clarity of ice balls, I have been playing around with putting objects inside ice spheres.

I first did a spiralized lime that you can see here – it came out pretty awesomely.

Then the other day I made some lime wedges and lime slices and put them in my ice ball molds.

When you freeze limes, it squeezes out some of the juice so the ice ball isn't crystal-clear as it is using this method with solid objects, but it still looks great and inside a cocktail you'd probably not notice.

To keep up on my ongoing icesperiments, follow along on my Instagram page.

April 6, 2017
How to Freeze a Spiralized Lime Inside a Clear Ice Ball Sphere

You can freeze pretty much anything inside a clear ice sphere using Directional Freezing, the technique I pioneered here on Alcademics.

As I've written previously, to make clear ice spheres you can use directional freezing with an ice ball mold on top of a thermos-style insulated container.

Specifically, I use a Thermos Funtainer and this 2.5" ice ball mold as they work perfectly together.

Fill both the ice ball mold and the container with water (I use filtered water; no need to distilled or anything). Place the ice ball upside-down atop the thermos. It takes 20 or so hours to freeze in my freezer.

Once you understand the basics, you can simply add objects inside the ice ball mold with the water to freeze. Make sure to shake them to get any air bubbles out and fill them to the top.

To make this lime spiral, I used this little tool called the Chef'n Lemon-Aid Citrus Spiralizer. I was trying it out and couldn't think of what to do with the spiralized lime once I'd made it. So I popped it into my ice ball mold, froze it overnight, and BEHOLD!

So, that came out pretty awesome.

March 29, 2017
Iceberg Animal Ice Molds Let you Experience Local Cooling in your Glass

Forgive me, I struggled with that headline.

Hey, I found these new kind of ice cube trays (on my regular search of new ice cube trays) that are pretty fun, if not totally clear. (I tried to hack them to make them come out clear, not very hard, but it didn't work.)

They're animals on top of ice cubes so that they float above the surface of your drink. It's like they're stranded on the rapidly-dissapearing polar ice caps- ADORABLY!

As your friendly neighborhood ice reviewer, I felt it my duty to purchase and test these trays. I bought two of them – a larger one and a bargain model. First, that latter.

The Fivebop Silicone Polar Ice Cube Molds come in Penguin and Polar Bear shapes. They only cost 13 dollars on Amazon (follow that link). They are smaller than the Monos brand ones – so if you put them in a warm drink they might not last long. I suspect that they're not quite as sturdy as the other ones but they worked well enough!

The monos 3D Ice Cube Mold Savanna comes in two versions: Lion & Hippopotamus Set and the Elephant & Gorilla Set. (They also have a Penguin and Polar Bear set that looks exactly like the Fivebop one but it's not available – not sure what's up with that.) I bought the Lion and Hippo one, as you can see from the below.

Good times with ice!

For all of the ice experiments on Alcademics, including how to make perfectly clear ice with Directional Freezing, see the Index of Ice Experiments Page.

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