On Wed, 2007-04-25 at 19:23 +0000, Peter P. wrote:
> Joshua Shriver <jshriver <at> gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > How does this work?
> 
> Put the beer in the deep freezer, wrapped in something soft (like a *dry*
> kitchen rag). Avoid vibration and moving the bottle at all while it freezes. The
> beer will be supercooled but liquid. Take out the bottle, remove the wrap (all
> without shaking it) and then do as the movie shows. Ymmv, and the bottle may
> freeze and crack making a mess. It may also freeze and crack while it's in your
> hand. Use a kitchen mitt and safety glasses and keep it away from you while
> handling it.
> 
> The physics involve internal cohesion forces in an undisturbed liquid and the
> lack of nucleation points. When something is cooled it will not start freezing
> solid until a 'starting point' exists. Then freezing occurs starting from it.
> Cold filtered beer is particularly void of any inclusions that could serve as
> nucleation points, so it stays liquid. When the bottle is bumped hard some of
> the CO2 is vented as tiny bubbles and these (and the beer that is now CO2-less
> where the bubble formed) start the crystal formation.

Sounds very similar to the "superheated water" thing in the microwave.

TTYL

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