Category: ice

Carved Ice Balls: Starter Molds

Here's a method that gets ice balls started using the cooler method for making clear ice. This comes courtesy of Dave Michalowski, for I saw it on his Facebook page and asked if I could steal his pictures to share. Thanks Dave!

He says, "I am using the round containers for the ice balls. I got them at the Container Store and they work perfectly. I believe they are three inches across and will snuggly fit into most old fashioned glasses. I saw off the end off the cylinder so the air doesn't get trapped in the bottom."

Dave carves his spheres from the cylendars using a Japanese paring knife, something I've not been brave enough to try yet.

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

June 21, 2011
Tales of the Cocktail Preview: The Chainsaw Shift

This is a preview of a seminar that will be given at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, which takes place July 20-24, 2011.

The Chainsaw Shift

There are two seminars this year at Tales about setting up an ice program. I'm pretty sure this one will be the only one with chainsaws though. The other, How to Build a Cutting Edge Ice Program, is part of the professionals series, though both seem geared toward professionals.

I was treated to a preview of sorts of this seminar in San Francisco, as Andrew Bohrer came down and gave bartenders a demo of cutting a huge block of ice into workable blocks at Heaven's Dog.

For those of you who saw this post on Alcademics in August 2010, the below is a repeat of that post, and hopefully a preview of what we'll witness at Tales.

Note: there is some NSFW language in the videos along with chainsaw noise.

First they started with the giant block and shaved off slices.

Then they cut those slices into rectangles

Then they cut those rectangles into cubes.

Then Andrew Bohrer demonstrated cutting an ice cube into an ice sphere using the shaving method.

Then he showed how he makes shaved ice by shaving ice.

Then he showed how he takes a big chunk of ice and with a knife can reduce it down to cubes.

Then Amanda Womack shows how she cuts ice spheres- by tapping at the outside with a knife rather than shaving.

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

The Details:

Time: 10 AM to 11:30 AM
Date: Friday the 22nd of July, 2011
Venue: La Nouvelle Orleans Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone
Moderators: Andrew Bohrer
Panelists: Anu Apte

The Chainsaw Shift is about offering to you a shift in thinking about the buzz phrase, “ice program.” The Chainsaw Shift is the lowest waste, highest quality way to have an, “ice program,” as well as being the simplest way to do so. This seminar is a shift in thinking on how bartenders treat their most essential and common ingredient: ice. Quality ice allows the bartender to reevaluate and reimagine every step of the drink making process and brings new joy and beauty to the simplest cocktails.

This seminar will cover the basics of safely and efficiently processing 300 lb. blocks of crystal clear ice with the aid of carpenter’s tools and a trusty chainsaw. We will also discuss and demonstrate techniques for cutting ice to improve aesthetics and quality of every cocktail. Examples will include in-glass ice sculptures, crushed ice, shaved ice, cracked & cubed ice for mixing and carving spheres, diamonds and other shapes. The Chainsaw Shift will never replace the ice machine; rather it will make every bartender into an ice machine.

June 10, 2011
Stovetop Ice Balls: A First Attempt

Now that we know one way to make crystal clear ice, what are we gonna do with it?

One thing I've wanted to attempt is to make ice balls. These can be carved by hand, but that's a lot of work. The big copper ice ball makers make lovely ice balls, but these cost a ton of money. I've been trying to think of a new solution.

When they send bars the copper ice ball makers, they send an ice cube tray that makes a big enough cube to use in it. Unfortunately that tray produces cubes that are cloudy in the center, for reasons described earlier on this site.

I am a big enough nerd that I have brought my own clear ice to a bar that had the ice ball maker to produce a clear ball. It was lovely.

So I made a first attempt at another way of creating ice balls with conventional equipment: The Stovetop Ice Ball Method.

Don't get too excited: So far it doesn't work.

The theory is that I'll start with a clear block of ice and melt it into a heated metal bowl, creating a half-sphere. Then I'll turn it over and make another half sphere joining that one to form a complete sphere.

I bought a bowl at Ikea that's probably four inches in diameter – too big for a glass but fine for an experiment. I sat the block of ice on it, and set the bowl on the stove burner.

Click the link below (if you see one) to keep reading.

(more…)

May 5, 2011
It’s Easter Egg (Ice) Time Again

Here's the Easter Ice project from a couple years ago that I'm reposting. Go here to learn how to make it.

April 22, 2011
The Clear Ice Maker That Already Exists

So you know how I've been working for months on a way to make clear ice, and figured out that the best way (so far) to do it is with an Igloo cooler?

It turns out that someone else thought of that at least a couple of years ago. The Polar Ice Tray is basically a high-design cooler that separates the cloudy part of the ice from the clear part.

They accomplish this with an interior perforated bucket of sorts. The last part to freeze, the bottom, will have all the cloudy parts in it, and that is below the bucket.

According to the instructions, you break off the cloudy part outside the bucket after it is frozen.

Pretty cool. More information is here.

It looks like it works as well as my Igloo cooler method, and is just a bit smaller holding about 2.5 cups worth of ice. I've got more experiments to do though…

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

November 24, 2010
Fortune Ice: Like A Fortune Cookie But With Ice
In my latest set of fun experiments with ice, I created fortune ice.

I'd been meaning to do this for a while, but two things made it actually happen. First, I bought a Tovolo King Cube Ice Cube Tray to make 2-inch cubes. Second, I realized I could use my Label Maker for the fortunes.

I was thinking that I would have to make fortunes then laminate them, but the label maker spits out labels that are plasticy on both sides.

This is one case where I didn't want perfectly clear ice (learn how to make clear ice here) because then you could read the fortunes in the cubes before they melted.

It turns out that the cloudiness in water does well to hide the paper in ice.

I froze the cubes with the fortunes inside, then let them thaw out. When some of the fortune was sticking out from the cube, I could pull it from the end and they slid out: No need to wait until the whole thing melted.

I wanted to make sure the paper didn't disintegrate in water, so I left a few fortunes in a glass of water overnight and they showed no signs of deterioration. However I should try this again with alcohol.

So, that was fun!

Possible uses for fortune ice could include:
- Fortunes, just like fortune cookies.
- Giveaways/prizes. One fortune contains a coupon for a free drink, door prize, etc.
- Cocktail recipes for the drink that you're drinking.
- Advertising. "Next time make this drink with our brand of whisky!"
- The bartender's phone number. "Call me, hot stuff."
An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.
November 15, 2010
Does Refreezing Clear Air-Free Ice Result In a Large Clear Block?
This is an experiment in my ongoing project to make clear ice. I've figured out a way to do it using an Igloo cooler. This experiment is an attempt to make clear ice without one.

A long time ago, I tested the theory that freezing, thawing, and refreezing water makes clear ice blocks. After 13 tries I determined that it refreezing water does not make clearer ice.

However, it recently occurred to me that I could test out something else. If we take just the clear part of ice (leaving behind the cloudy, air-rich stuff), melt it and refreeze it, will the new ice be clear?

A bar in San Francisco refreezes their Kold-Draft cubes. One bartender told me he thought it makes clearer ice than with just tap water, but still not completely clear.

If this experiment works, then someone anyone could refreeze small bits of clear ice into large blocks. Efficient? Nope. But interesting.

(Oh, and long story short: this experiment was inconclusive. Don't want to make you read if you're not into it.)

Anyway, step one was to make clear ice, as I do using the Igloo cooler method. I made two partial blocks of ice. I let the water freeze in the cooler, then knock off the thin skin that forms around the bottom of the cooler (full of water).

Then I took these two clear slabs, broke them into large chunks, and put them into the cooler to melt.

After it melted, I refroze it.

The ice in the picture above is upside-down from how it was in the cooler. Here's a closeup.

At first view, it looks a little cloudy in the middle of the bloc- but I think that's because I had to move my refrigerator a couple of times during this process and jostling the container does seem to make cloudier ice.

Looking just at the cloudy part at the bottom end (top in the picture above), I can't really say whether it's less cloudy than it is with regular tap water. This experiment is inconclusive.

My theory is that as the water cools down or warms up to room temperature it reabsorbs a standard amount of air, and this experiment won't work. However:

If I repeat this experiment (and I probably will), I should:
- Make the clear ice as normal, but not break up the slab into chunks. This saved time but probably adds air.
- Use more refrozen water in the cooler when refreezing. Here is was a little too hard to tell what percentage of ice was cloudy, so I could not compare it with the time I did this experiment with regular water.
The icesperiments continue!

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.
November 5, 2010
Cutting Blocks of Ice with an Icepick

update 2021 Better ice cutting pictures are on this post.

To cut the large blocks of clear ice that I make at home using and Igloo cooler (methodology here), I have always busted out the saw I bought for that reason.

However, last week I gave a talk on ice at Portland Cocktail Week with Evan Zimmerman and Jim Romdall. During the talk one of them (Evan I think) mentioned how you use an ice pick to cut apart a block of ice the easy way.

I cringed thinking of all the time I'd spent sawing when this way is like 1000 times easier. I hope I can save you from the same fate.

1. Start with your slab of ice. The one in this picture is about 5 inches thick.

2. Tap a line across the top where you want the ice to break. The ice will chip off and form a little groove.

3. Tap in one point in the center. Poke hard. Poke poke poke.

4. The ice should break in two roughly along the line. Hooray!

5. Repeat the process to break it into smaller pieces.

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

November 1, 2010
More Fun with Ice: The Time Bomb

The fun with ice continues! In ongoing experiments freezing things in ice, I decided to try freezing food coloring in the middle of an ice cube. Then when the ice melts, the coloring will release and change the drink.

Click on the link below to see how I did it and what happened.

(more…)

October 28, 2010
Using Salt Walter as an Insulator to Make Clear Ice

This blog post is a continuation of this experiment.

In this experiment, I wanted to test out another way to insulate an ice cube tray to make clear ice. Inspired by a comment from another blog entry by a reader named Gael, I decided to try salt water as an insulator rather than just plain water as in the last experiment. If it worked, this would be a way to make clear ice at home without taking up too much freezer space.

I took a small food container and put it into a slightly larger one. The smaller container held only water. The outer container held water with table salt. The theory is that the salt water would not freeze, so it would act as an insulator for the ice, and control the direction of freezing so that it would only freeze from the top-down (as with the cooler method).

I didn't use a ton of salt. As you can see, the outer container's water did freeze lightly,though it was soft. The bottom did not completely freeze, as you can sort of see here.

The inner container did seem to freeze toward the bottom.

In better-insulated containers, the cloudy part is only on the bottom of the container. Here, it is concentrated but raised slightly above the bottom of the container.

In this case the inner container sat directly on the bottom of the outer container, so it wasn't greatly insulated on the bottom. My theory is that this is why the cloudy part of the ice is raised above the bottom.

To improve this experiment, I would put raise the inner container off the bottom of the outer container, and probably use a greater amount of salt in the salt water.

As the outer container here is only slightly larger than the inner container, this system is more space-efficient than the Igloo cooler for many people without large freezers.

There's more work to do on this…

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

October 26, 2010