Buying a thermometer/temperature gun for beer?

Don't know how good your freezer is, but my rule of thumb is an hour in the freezer laying sideways (more surface area exposure) and let warm accordingly, usually a couple minutes

 

Temp guns only measure the surface temp. And containers will definitely chill from the outside in so your temp gun will absolutely give a cooler reading than the liquid inside the bottle.

With some experimenting you could probably calibrate yourself to know what the temperature you read on the outside of the bottle/ can need to be to reach the temp you want the liquid to be

 

Buy a mini refrigerator (personal refrigerator, which is even smaller than a small refrigerator) and keep it in your room. It’s a little more price wise than the temp gun, but you don’t need to keep buying batteries. And more importantly, you will have chill beers at all times!

 

Put in the freezer for 20-30 min, or until it seems ready, record the time. Let it sit out for a couple of minutes and the surface will relatively equalize with the liquid. Then like you guys said above, check the surface, check the liquid. Within a few tries and you'll know exactly how long to leave it in the freezer.

 

To me, this sounds like too much trouble before simply drinking a beer. Can you just experiment to determine the ideal-ish length of time in the freezer and then set an alarm on your phone accordingly?

I’ll add this just in case the perspective has any benefit - I used to put my beers in a fridge or freezer before drinking them. Over time, I eventually came to the realization that I preferred all of my beers straight from my basement and at a significantly higher temp than from a fridge. In some ways the preferences we have for things like this are learned and can change. On my end, I’m very happy I changed my practices. If I didn’t have a basement, I’d prefer room temp beers over fridge temp.

I’m obviously not suggesting you should change your preferences to solve your problem… but sometimes it pays to look for solutions in unusual places, and it can’t hurt to challenge one’s ideas.

 

I've also come around to enjoying my beer warmer than I used to (the fridge I store my beer in is set to its highest temp setting which yields a temp around 54°f) but is suspect that a Spanish apartment bedroom is likely to be much warmer than that most of the time.

I drank a helles straight from a warehouse store shelf last night, I'd wager the liquid was in the low- mid 60s, and I can tell you in much looking forward to having the next can out of the fridge later today

 

I may be in the minority, but I try hard to avoid “fast chilling”, because I think it changes the flavor. Don’t know why, but I feel like a beer that has sat in the fridge for several days tastes different than one that was chilled earlier that day or fast chilled.

That said, the temp gun is certainly too much work. A mini fridge is the way to go. Alternatively, if you are set on the freezer, then just time it and figure it out and set an alarm as others have said.

 

So, if you use a temp gun, what I would expect is the following. Bear in mind that I am NOT a thermal physicist (is that a thing) or anything of the sort. I just have some experience with thermal properties from my work.

The outside will cool faster, and it will slowly cool to the center. But, the outside likely won’t become the ambient temperature of the freezer for some time, approaching it asymptotically. So, you’ll still have to do testing, and instead you’ll be checking your beers a couple times over to get the right temperature. This is after testing, of course, and this will likely vary by style. Again, I don’t know much in the way of densities, but I would assume a thicc stout will cool slower than a thin Kölsch, all other things equal.

 

I just realized, how have none of us offered our dear friend @dajjorg the essential beer cooking technique I learned in college?

To cool a beverage rapidly you want to put it in icy water. You could use a small cooler or a bucket and fill it with ice and a little water and your bottles or cans will chill much faster. It won't eliminate the variability but it will make it happen faster.

 

Can't believe no one has suggested this yet. If your roommates won't give you enough space in the fridge for a can or two or beer, it's time to get some new roommates.

 

What!?! No discussion of the quick chill method?

 

The above is related to something I had in my mind with my post but wasn’t explicit about. If that sort of attention to detail is something that you really enjoy, then move forward with trying to control it. If the above is more of a worry than a pleasure, then you might find more enjoyment by loosening your need to control the situation perfectly. Don't worry so much about something that should bring enjoyment.

But to feed into that worry () - you might even be doing more harm than good by checking the bottled beer temp every 5 minutes. If you had to put those Belgian bottles on their side to keep them in the freezer, and if they were beers that had secondary fermentation in the bottle, then you've not only managed to lower their temperature but you've also managed to disperse the bottle sediment throughout the beers. Some drinkers would prefer that outcome, but Belgian brewers will typically intend to have bottle sediment sit on the bottom of a bottle to avoid it dispersing into the entire beer. Do whatever you want, but just be aware of these things.

If your goal is to get your beers as close to fridge temp as possible, but you can't store the beers in the fridge long-term, then perhaps a solution is to put the beers in the freezer for a half hour, and then move them to the fridge for an hour. If you are just doing this with one can, I would think that you might be able to find the space in the fridge for an hour. Perhaps this method will help avoid the temperature inconsistencies you are fighting... but I have no idea if science would disagree.

 

Add salt and it will cool quicker. Salt water can get colder than non salt water due to the salt content.


Another option is wrap the beers in damp towels and put them in the freezer. In theory that should help the heat transfer and cool the beer quicker.


I just pop them in the freezer for 40 minutes, a bit more if it’s more than a six pack.


Enjoy

 

Ah, just pour it in a cup with some ice.

 

Could be the perfect use for the ol' trusty frosted mug!

 

I just try to remember the ABV of the beer comes into play with the freezer - if it’s a high abv like a double IPA i can leave in there for a while, but if it’s something around 5%, that can turn into a beer slushy in about 30-40 min.