Feb

20

Can cryogenics freeze alcohol?

Filed Under Beer, Wine & Spirits 

staggerlee337 asked:


If you put a litre of vodka in a plastic bag and froze it cryogenically (liquid nitrogen), would it become a solid? If so, when it left the frozen state (via natural defrosting, not heating), would it vaporize or return to a liquid? And how long would that take?

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Comments

13 Responses to “Can cryogenics freeze alcohol?”

  1. perfectltangel on February 20th, 2008 1:54 pm

    why do you wanna know?

  2. Emilie B on February 23rd, 2008 2:42 pm

    liquid.. just as long as a regular ice cube depending on climate

  3. melanerd on February 26th, 2008 11:26 am

    Maybe the Science Category (Chemistry) would be a better place to ask your question..=)
    .;_ylv=3?link=list&sid=396545227

  4. dances_with_unicorns1955 on February 29th, 2008 7:14 pm

    If liquid nitrogen gets down to -173F, then yes, it would freeze. Otherwise, it will simply be a thicker and thicker liquid as the temperature drops. If you thaw it back to room temperature (or any temperature above -173F, for that matter), it will be a liquid again. You’d have to heat it very rapidly to get it to sublimate.

  5. Jaffa in Jamaica on March 3rd, 2008 3:58 am

    Vodka has a freezingpoint of -36c, Liquiod nitro -170ish

  6. weh ^_^ on March 5th, 2008 12:09 pm

    crygenics is the study of things below absolute zero…
    100% your alcohol will freeze and it will take a long time for it to defrost, depending on the temperature provided…

  7. Zachary B on March 7th, 2008 3:44 pm

    1. Yes.

    2. It would return to a liquid state.

    3. Assuming you let it defrost at room temperature, probably about an hour.

  8. dial911imbleedin on March 9th, 2008 12:58 pm

    you don’t need cryogenics for that. my freezer freezes every alcohol i put in there if i leave it for a couple weeks. stoli, absolute, yukon jack, smirnoff. i’ve never tried anything like everclear in there. that might not freeze so easily. it’s not that alcohol doesn’t freeze, it just needs a lower temp than water.

  9. tuan_bao on March 10th, 2008 2:53 am

    depends on the % of alcohol in the vodka. If it’s low then the freezing temperature is going to be higher then that of pure alcohol which would be low like -114degree celcius. the temperature of liquid nitrogen at normal atm pressure is about -195.8degree celcius. so it is possible for it to freeze it. it depends how long it would take for it to defrost. what is the surrounding temperature? room temperature? sunny day? etc. these variables would effect defrosting rate

  10. T J on March 11th, 2008 2:12 pm

    Yes, alcohol (vodka or whatever) has a freezing point, it’s just lower than what you usually have access to, meaning that if you put it in your freezer, or a snowbank, it’ll stay liquid, but get it cold enough it’ll freeze like everything else.

    If you did natural defrosting, it would return to liquid state. States are solids, liquids, gases. If you have to heat it normally to get it to a gas point, then just letting it defrost isn’t going to magically turn it into gas.

    As for how long it would take, that depends on how strong it was (how much alcohol) and how much you had, and how dense it was – a bottle thickness would take longer than a straw thickness, but not as much as a barrel thickness.

  11. Streakin Meekin on March 13th, 2008 2:55 pm

    I believe it’s one of the great mysteries of our time.

  12. Wine and Window Guy on March 14th, 2008 1:37 am

    Anyone can freeze alcohol! Dry ice will do it as long as its not grain alcohol.

  13. sirbobby98121 on March 16th, 2008 3:10 am

    Liquid nitrogen will freeze alcohol solid…when returned to room temperature, it returns to a liquid state- it does not deliquesce.

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