Alcademics

Tag: ice balls

  • More Ice Ball Shenanigans

    If you're not following alcademics on Instagram… well you really should be. I've been having some fun over there freezing stuff into ice balls. I'm using the same technique you've seen here on Alcademics before – a thermos and an upside-down ice ball mold. 

    Lately I did a couple fun ones with money, which I'd never serve to a real person because money is filthy.

     

    IMG_0568
    IMG_0568

     

    I did a few with jalapenos for one event, and some with mint for another event. (Also some blue ones for it.) 

    IMG_0587
    IMG_0587
    IMG_0587
    IMG_0587

     

    And for gay pride, I made some ones with rainbow flags. I printed out and laminated some rainbow flags, and then froze those inside the ice spheres. 

    IMG_0608
    IMG_0608

    If you're looking for more amazing ice projects, check out the Index of Ice Experiments.

     

    Any suggestions on other things to freeze inside clear ice balls? 

     

     

     

  • Ice Tips in Southwest Airlines Magazine

    IMG_8963If you're traveling in December on Southwest, you may notice an illustration of an ice ball with a strawberry in it. That's based on a real strawberry inside a real ice ball, that you may have seen here on Alcademics. 

     

    IMG_8964
    IMG_8964

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    I don't see the story online, so I'll post it below.  

    IMG_7168 (1)

    For more information on how to make awesome ice balls with stuff inside them, check out this post and this post, and of course the Index of Ice Experiments here on Alcademics.

    Thanks to writer Michael Cook for writing the story and thanks to my friends who spotted it in magazine and snapped pictures for me!

     

     

  • Make Perfectly Clear Ice Balls Using a Beer Koozie

    Boiled vs two unboiled
    Alcademics readers have found numerous ways to make clear ice balls, all taking advantage of Directional Freezing, the process I developed (and named) to make perfectly clear ice using an insulated cooler.

    You can find an index of all the ice experiments on Alcademics here.

    Some of the ice ball methods are:

    Today's technique is a variation of Making Clear Ice Balls Using an Insulated Mug (probably the least space-intensive method), which I fact-checked here. It's basically just a different insulated mug. 

    This technique comes from Alcademics reader Cody P, who refined the method. He says, "Doing ice balls like this is just like your article on using a mug, but I left a few mugs too long and they broke from expansion (no big deal if a little can breaks)."

    This method uses a beer can in a koozie with the top cut off. 

    The technique is:

    1. Buy a Yeti Colster. (Another brand might work, but Yeti makes particularly good insulated mugs/koozies.)
    2. Buy some ice ball molds. Cody P said he thinks he bought his (seen in the pictures) at Williams Sonoma, but they're the same size as these 2.5" ice ball molds.
    3. Cut the top off a beer can (and consider filing or taping the top edge to prevent it cutting you when using. 
    4. Put the can in the Colster and fill it with water.
    5. Fill an ice ball mold almost full (leave a little room) with water.
    6. Hold your thumb over the hole of the ice ball mold and set it upside-down (hole facing down) on top of the can in the Colster. 
    7. Allow to freeze overnight or roughly 8-10 hours. Remove frozen ice ball. 

    Can and coozy

    Removing excess water
    Removing excess water

    Boiled vs two unboiled

    (For first-time readers, what is happening is that the water in the ice ball is the first part to freeze, pushing trapped air/impurities away from the point of freezing down into the insulated mug.)

    Though I've not had additional success with boiling water before freezing, Cody P has. He observed: 

    1. If you boil the water then the ice comes out SUPER, unboiled gives these air bubbles on the surface but still comes out 100X better than a regular mold.
    2. If you don't pour out some water like I'm doing in one of the pictures, your ball can become an egg as seen in the ice ball picture.
    3. It takes about 8-10 hours to freeze a ball in my freezer but I'm not sure what the temperature is.
    4. If you just want blocks of ice, regular tap water works great since it freezes super slow and is a small volume of water (I think). I found that after about 14 hours I can take out the large block you see and break it in half to use for whiskey and such. They are also decent sized to use an ice ball press.

    Pictures of the ice from the bottom of the can are below.

    Boiled4
    Boiled4

     

    Thanks much to Cody P for the method and for sending in the pictures!

     

    Related articles
    Make Perfectly Clear Ice Balls Using Insulated Mugs
    A New Clear Ice Ball Maker That Seems To Work Okay
    Fact-Checking the Clear Ice Balls Method
    Making a Clear Ice Block from the Bottom Up
    Clear Ice Cubes Using a Tray in a Cooler

  • A Clear Ice Ball Maker You Can Buy

    One difficulty with the Igloo Cooler method of making clear ice is that you get a great big block of ice at the end and have to cut it up into usable cubes yourself. I developed an ice cube tray using plastic boxes that gets the ice into long rectangles, and that's a bit closer to ideal. 

    • Ice cube tray
    • Ice block
    Ice block

     

     

    But if the desired result is round clear ice balls, we need to either produce a mold that fits inside the cooler, or else carve out ice balls afterwards.  

    Well, it turns out that someone produced such a mold to make clear ice balls one at a time, using the same principles as the Igloo cooler method. 

    Alcademics reader Todd pointed me to this ebay listing for a clear ice ball maker from Japan.

     

    Ice_mold-01

     

    As you can see, it's an insulted tube that holds a circular ice ball mold inside of it, along with extra space below the ice ball.

    The important thing to note is that the ball mold is perforated. This allows any air and impurities in the water to get pushed out of it, towards the bottom of the mold, as it freezes. In other posts here on Alcademics, we've discussed that's how you'd need to build the mold in order for it to work. 

     

    Ice_mold-04

     

    It only makes one at a time, but it's pretty cool. The only not cool thing about is is the price: It's for sale at $97.60 each! 

    I still kinda want one. 

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

     

  • 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."

    Cylendar out of cooler no ice  Cylendar in cooler Cylendars in cooler Ice cylendar
    Ice sphere

    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.