Category: ice

Percent Cloudiness in Top Frozen Block Ice

I'm somewhere along the process of creating an ice cube tray that takes advantage of the top frozen ice that I make in an Igloo cooler. As the cooler lid is off when I freeze water in it, the water freezes from the top down like a pond in winter. The cloudy part of the ice (where air an impurities migrate as the water freezes) are only in the bottom of the block.

In the below picture the block has been turned upside-down after removing it from the cooler.

Most of the time when making ice for myself at home, I leave the cooler in my freezer for a couple of days then dump out the ice before the bottom portion starts to freeze and get cloudy- that way the entire block of ice is clear and I don't have to cut any of it off.

In a recent set of experiments, I wanted to see what percent of the block of ice was cloudy if I let the block freeze entirely. So far I've done three measurements.

As you can sorta see, a portion of the ice has bubbly streaks in it but is mostly clear, then there is an all-cloudy last bit.

Trial One:

Total height = 3.75 inches
Somewhat cloudy =  last two inches
Very cloudy, unusable = last 1/2 inch
Percent unusable cloudiness = 13%

Trial Two:

Total height = 6 inches
Somewhat cloudy =  last three inches
Very cloudy, unusable = last 1 inch
Percent unusable cloudiness = 17%

Trial One:

Total height = 6 inches
Somewhat cloudy =  last two inches
Very cloudy, unusable = last 1 1/2 inch
Percent unusable cloudiness = 25%

So we're looking at an average of 18% of the ice is too cloudy to use in a cooler of this shape and size.

Why might this information matter? If I develop an ice cube tray that fit into this cooler I would want to be able to remove the last cloudy bit so that it wouldn't get into the ice. I wanted to know about how much waste we're looking at.

But one thing I'm learning with repeated experiments is that by freezing from the top down the water expands and puts a lot of pressure on the bottom of the cooler. (Think of how a plastic bottle will bulge when put in the freezer.) With repeated experiments that cooler is starting to warp on the bottom, plumping out in the center. A better freezing vessel would be flexible on the bottom.

To see all of my ice experiments use this link.

August 3, 2010
The Double Rainbow Cocktail

I decided to create a drink to honor the best video of the weekend, "Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10". (Scroll down to see it if you haven't already.)

It's guaranteed to make you say, "DOUBLE COMPLETE RAINBOW! What does this MEAN?"

The Double Rainbow
by Camper English

1 ounce vodka
1 ounce St. Germain elderflower liqueur
4 or so ounces of soda water
4 dashes of grapefruit bitters (Fee Brothers brand)
lemon peel for garnish
rainbow ice cubes

Make rainbow ice by adding food coloring to an ice cube tray, filling with water and freezing. (For more fun with ice, see the index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics here.)

Cut lemon peel into stars. Add all ingredients to a glass filled with ice in rainbow order (two cubes per color, making it a double complete rainbow). Garnish with lemon stars.

This cocktail I actually created for a wedding several months back, but thought it would be appropriate here. (It's not so original that I would be surprised if many other people have created this same drink. I just poured it on rainbow ice.)

Note: If you enjoyed this video-inspired cocktail, perhaps you'd also enjoy the Honey Badger Shot.

The video that inspired the drink is after the jump. Double rainbow all the way!

(more…)

July 5, 2010
That Ice Story is Online

The short piece on making crystal clear ice at home I wrote for Wired Magazine is now online. Check it out!

June 9, 2010
Another Ice Banner Attempt

You may think all I do is futz around with ice all day, and you'd be mostly correct (for proof, see the index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics here). I attempted to make another site banner today using a clear piece of ice stamped with ALCADEMICS, but I think I like the orange peel one (too big as it is) better.

Click it to see it bigger if you're interested.

May 27, 2010
An Icy Weekend in Monterey

This past weekend I spent about 12 hours cutting ice and it was awesome! As part of a bartender catering gig with Rye on the Road I worked a wedding and rehearsal dinner in Monterey. With a trusty ice saw and my new ice pick from Cocktail Kingdom I went to town on those blocks of ice, chopping out fat cubes, attempting to carve spheres, and even making a heart to show the ice how much I love it.

Despite how it looks in this picture I didn't have my hand replaced with an ice saw, but now I'm thinking about it.

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

May 25, 2010
Making Crystal Clear Ice in Wired Magazine

Run screaming to the newsstand to pick up the June issue of Wired magazine, because there is a story by me in it. Sure it's only 100 words long and it's about how to make clear ice, something you may have read about here, but you can consider it a collector's item.

Update: The article is online here.

May 25, 2010
How to Make Clear Ice, The Hard Way
Darcy over at ArtofDrink.com has taken up pursuit of clear ice. In his first post, he noted something that I did not consider and that could be very helpful.

As the ice increases in thickness it begins to corral all of the impurities into the center of the block. Dissolved air and unfiltered water will cause a cloudy core, but impurities are not the main reason why ice cubes are rarely crystal clear.

This expansion pressure is what makes ice cloudy in the center, not minerals and other debris. The visual flaws are caused by fractures in the ice when the last remaining liquid water in the center of the cube freezes and exerts a massive amount of force on the surrounding ice. The cube is basically cracked from the inside out.

This is in line with what I discovered when I tried all sorts of ways to get the air and impurities out of the ice- in the end it just didn't matter that much.

So in his second experiment, Darcy set about making ice freeze from the bottom up, so that the last part to freeze would be the top. Thus there would be no pressure cracking of the ice. His equipment list was:
- 6 ft of copper pipe
- my wife's cookie sheet
- tin-snips
- a bag of nails
- a garbage bag
- an aquarium pump (powerhead)
- a square garbage can
- a coat hanger
- two Canadian winter days and nights at roughly -10°C
As he noted,

The process works, but it isn’t very efficient nor is it practical.

Anyway, there is still more work to be done. Icesperiments will continue!

An index of ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.
January 14, 2010
Is Faster Frozen Ice Less Cloudy than Slower Frozen Ice?

In the last installment of my ongoing adventures making clear ice at home in the freezer, I found that using a hard-sided Igloo cooler works pretty well to create large, mostly-clear blocks.

I was curious to see if faster frozen blocks (with the freezer turned to its maximum cold setting) would come out more or less cloudy/clear than blocks frozen at the minimum cold setting.

Of course, my freezer isn't exactly high-tech. According to my novelty jumping bass fish thermometer I picked up in Finland (thanks for the trip, Finlandia!), my freezer only ranges from -3.2 to 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit.

Anyway, as you can see below, there wasn't much difference at all. Here's the block set on the warmest freezer setting (slowest to freeze):

And here at the coldest setting, which froze faster:

My finger (I should be hand model, right?) indicates where I'd cut the block to get rid of the too-cloudy ice. One was 12 cm and the other 12.5. At that difference, you may as well turn the thing all the way up and have your ice sooner.

More icesperiments to come!

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

January 5, 2010
Inside the Freezer of an Ice Nerd

Well I certainly wouldn't want any food in there spoiling the flavor of my ice that I spent so much time making.

January 3, 2010
Clear Ice Blocks at Home in an Igloo Cooler
This post describes how to make a clear block of ice using a picnic cooler. Since I first wrote it in 2009, I have figured out a lot about ice, but this was the defining post for what would become known as "directional freezing." What is Directional Freezing? (the basic theory behind clear ice).

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here. It's also a great place to start.

Before I figured this out, I tried many other experiments.

Early experiments were:
And I had success with:
- Releasing Air Trapped in Ice
- Cutting Corners to Make Clear Ice
I also learned some ways to cut ice into big chunks.

Now I am trying to refine what I call the Pond Method, the concept that if we freeze water from the top down only (and not outside-in), all the trapped air that makes cloudy ice will be the last to freeze on the bottom of the container, rather than in the middle.

In the last attempt I used a collapsible beer cooler. I had good success in getting clear ice, but found it really hard to get the ice out of a cooler.

This time I tried freezing water in a hard-sided plastic Igloo picnic cooler. Initially I left the cover closed, but after two days it had only barely started to freeze (a good sign for its insulating abilities) so then propped the cover open.

After a few days when the water looked almost completely frozen and I could see some cloudiness forming at the bottom, I removed the cooler from the freezer. I turned the cooler upside-down and waited for the ice block to drop out of the cooler. Presto! It was ready.

There was a little unfrozen water at the bottom of the block (with only about a centimeter of ice covering it). This was easy to drain.

Then I just cut off the bottom cloudy part and had a big chunk. Easy!

Once again, the secret to cutting ice is to score it about a centimeter with a knife or saw, then chip it away with an ice pick and hammer.

Conclusions:
- I'm really surprised the cooler didn't crack after the ice expanded, but maybe it didn't because there was a little unfrozen water remaining.
- This Igloo cooler is a totally workable vessel for making clear ice blocks in my home freezer. Hooray! Luckily it is of a shape that allows for easy removal of the ice block.
Future experiments:
- In this first experiment with the cooler I set the freezer temperature on the lowest setting. I'll see if this matters for clarity or if I can use the high setting for faster freezing.
- I also want to try a disposable Styrofoam cooler (if I can find one this winter) just because there is no worry if it cracks, and this is the most reproducible vessel for other people to try at home.
- I should attempt to find a flexible insulating material that can be made into other shapes, such as a tall and skinny shape (thermos?) that would more easily fit in the freezer and can make smaller cubes.
Here are more clear pictures of the ice pulled out of the cooler with some of it unfrozen, and it after smashing off the unfrozen part.
December 28, 2009