So, whatcha drinking

Tequila and Sangrita

It’s a Mexico City thing

Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

You're up late-good thing you're having decaf. :)

Another shot of grapefruit vodka

red wine

harvy walbanger

That's also a fast freeze from supercooling, but rather than an agitation the impetus is the sudden drop in pressure. A little more of a problem as it kind of ruins the beer (soda will do the same thing) but worse is the glass can break. At least with water bottles you can watch the ice move through the water and the water isn't ruined in any way.

VA, I've had that happen with bottles of beer out of a too cold refrigerator. As soon as you crack the top..... You can see the freeze start from bottom to top..... And eruption! Fail. :-/

After 10 years of working at a oil refinery in the midwest..... My retirement goal is to move to a place where the only ice around will be in my drinks. I've been to Alaska on a cruise.... It's majestic as hell.... Couldn't live there.

Another fun thing to do.

Put a few bottles of water in the freezer. After a couple of hours pull one out, carefully, and then slam it down on the counter or hit it sharply with your hand on the bottom. You'll see it freeze quickly right before your eyes if the bottle is in the metastable range.

If it doesn't freeze, it's not cold enough yet. Give it another 30 minutes and take another bottle out and try again.

vabeach, that's cool. I've always found the ice thing fascinating. When I was stationed in Alaska many moons ago, I was stunned by the savage beauty of the Turnagain Arm just south of Anchorage when the sea ice would break up and heave into huge ridges of ice offshore. I'd drive out to Alyeska Ski Resort about twice a month during winter and the road went along the shore for several miles. And I'd be treated to the sight every time.

On a smaller level, when we'd be out in the woods during the truly deep cold, 40 below or colder, we'd take perverse pleasure in watching our breath. When the conditions were right, when you'd breathe out, you'd see a huge cloud of vapor, which began to sparkle as the ice crystals formed, and then would fall down as fine snow.

Freakin' rum and diet Dr. Pepper

Because I have a client that needs me to drink it to get through the third weekend in a row.

pinot noir, because I need it.

A fascinating thing, to me anyway....

Most chemicals will, given the right conditions, grow in crystals which are a consequence of the actual packing shape of the molecules involved. Because water crystallizes as trimers (three water molecules arranges in a hexagonal pattern) "perfect" snowflakes tend to show six-fold symmetry.

When I was a teenager in Canada, we had a pool and it was always covered during the winter. One time during a period of very favorable conditions, the water on the top of the pool cover was held virtually constant for several days at freezing, and the temperature went down very, very slowly with almost no wind. This allowed an extremely slow and undisturbed crystallization of the top 4 inches of the water in the pool. Rather than forming as a sheet of ice, it formed as hexagonal prisms, like pencils, from the surface downwards. When you reached your hand in to grab them, you were pulling up a bunch of perfectly formed ice-pencils, which made a sound like shattering glass when they fell down. It was completely awesome.

I kept some in the freezer for a while but nobody else cared. I always thought it would be neat to replicate that and put ice pencils in people's drinks, but the conditions to grow such crystals would be tough to replicate.

If you look up "Glaciers Visit Izatys Resort - Mille Lacs Lake, MN" on youtube you will see a heave of such crystals being pushed off a lake and slooooowly smashing into a house. The crystals aren't quite as perfect as the pencils I described, but what do you want - it's a lake - but you still get the smashing glass noise. Pretty awesome.

Oh you're absolutely right, Sorillo.

I should mention that boiling water also drives off any chlorine in just a few minutes. If your municipality uses chloramine (which many do now), you need to boil it much longer, but the taste/smell is far weaker so it might not be necessary.

You could also just buy distilled water from the grocery store for around $1 per gallon. You'd still need to boil it to degas it, but there wouldn't be any disinfectant.

The only purpose of all of this is of course clear ice cubes to show off. If showing off your perfect ice cubes is important, it's worth the effort. Otherwise, plain ol' tap water is usually fine.

It's true that the quality of the water has no real effect when it comes to making clear ice. I probably wasn't clear on that point. But it can be a huge difference in taste, depending on how it compares to your tap water. Here where I'm living, the water is rather more heavily chlorinated than in some other places I've been. So here at least, bottled or filtered water is kind of important for drinks, coffee and for cooking.

All this whiskey talk made me thirsty. I finished off a bottle of Barton's 1792 I had, on a large round cube of course. :-) Cheers, groupies!

That seems like a lot of work for ice cubes which, imo, aren't the main focus!

The easiest way to get perfectly clear ice cubes is to boil the water first.

Boiling it degasses it completely. No dissolved gases = no bubbles. It has nothing to do with the quality of the water (spring water, etc).

I agree, Makers isn’t at the top of my list but the Mrs. likes it. I think it’s more the memories of a 40 couple Lifestyle Bourbon Trail tour we went on that the actual bourbon. I learned a lot about bourbon on that trip, and worlds more about how best to play at 70 mph on a bus full of drunk lifestylers with a vanilla driver who couldn’t keep his eyes on the road. I think the Mrs. was TRYING to cause truckers alongside us to crash, but she denies it categorically.

The techniques I've been playing with are to avoid aerating the water, the assumption being that the cloudiness is air bubbles suspended in the ice. So it's about driving the gasses out by boiling the water in the silicone tray, or in a pyrex measuring pitcher and gently and SLOWLY pouring into the round mold.

Basically, a lot of fucking work for a gawddamn ice cube. :)

Glad to help, Natural. :-D
You can find the molds in larger liquor stores... Or online... I think I've seen them on Amazon.

Sorillo... I've seen YouTube videos about making clear ice. Something about getting the ice to freeze uniformly instead of from bottom to top. What's your method? I only use spring water in my whiskey cubes as well.

I have those round ice molds as well. Plus some of the soft silicone cube trays both 1" and 2" cubes. I only use bottled water for them and I've been trying to get them to freeze as clear as possible. Sometimes I get close, but it's pretty rare. Still, it's fun to go through the different techniques trying to find one that works consistently.

Western-I will have to try making those round cubes you make with spring water. And thank you for the offer of your stir stick. :)

Sorillo, I also enjoy bourbon on the rocks..... Probably for the same reason.... A little water mixed in. I bought a mold kit to make the huge round cubes you see at cocktail bars. A little spring water in the mold and 4 big cubes.... They melt slower and don't dilute the whiskey quite so much.

And natural..... I have a stir stick you can use..... :-D

We love the variety of aromas and tastes of single malt scotches. We have about 19 bottles of various types from smoke, to pest, to middle. Bourbons dont have the variety of scotch, for us. JD, Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, 3-Roses, are for mixing. That mix can be coke, coffee, Amaretto, or ginger beer (bourbon mule). Neat, I prefer Woodford Reserve, 3 Rose's Reserve. I tried TE Taylor and it didn't seem worth the price. It's all about what one likes.