Cooling My Beer . . . for Free

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by bryan and wendy

My first prototype stands the beer can in a bowl of water (1" deep) on deck, then stretches a sock (preferably washed, and of the 'wicking' variety)over the can, and into the water. This will wick water up the length of the can, where the wind will evaporate the water off (large surface area of the sock material)- and Bingo! cool beer without a warm fridge!
Looking for design improvements please

How about putting the sock all the way around the beer container and keeping it in the shade? And try different varieties of materials.

[PilotJesse]

If you could lower your favorite beverage several hundred meters down into the ocean, you could cool it way down, even at the equator (just theory, not tried it!)

[MarkJ]

Beer?

Evaporative?

'oath it 'vaporates.

Cold, warm, damn stuff 'vaporates jus the same. *burrp* Jus the same.



.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

I will not be cruising anywhere with out refrigeration aboard and the knowledge and spares to maintain it. It will be a system on my boat as important to me as a proper sail inventory is to a racer.

To each his own..

I always keep a small marine aquarium or 2, to observe the things we find. It seems worthwhile, to me an my daughter.

And a good supply of warm or cold beer.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Exactly. Get a good stout and enjoy it warm.

Quite, pass another iron off the coal fire, my ale is getting cold

BTW an old CO2 fire extinguisher makes a quick method of cooling beers down

[bryan and wendy]

This topic has started some interesting debate- To answer a few questions- I sail in the Med, so the water is warmer than my ideal beer temperature. My favourite tipple, being British, is of course bitter, or stout as it's also known. I'm now sat in front of a nice roaring fire, dreaming about returning to the boat in the spring, and drinking a pint of foaming 'Firsty Ferret' which is a local brew widely acclaimed for its health giving and medicinal properties!! There is however a huge problem with supply- it just cannot be obtained in Greece/Turkey, so I have to resort to European or Australian lager, which, as has been pointed out, just doesn't have the taste- and isn't pleasant when warm.
Now on to the engineering problem, which is where we started- the technical details of the material are as shown here
Drymax Sport Socks with DRYMAX removes moisture from your skin!
As it says, it only works outside a shoe, and as I'm not planning to build the coooler inside my footwear, it will clearly work.
The actual socks are shown here, but you can just google wicking socks
Nike Official Store. Shop Nike Footwear, Clothing & Sports Equipment at Nike Store.
As socks are only sold in pairs, I guess I will have to build two of these devices. One cooling, one cooled and ready for drinking!!
excellent!
I could start the research and increae the sample size right now, but as I said, weather conditions here are not quite right, so I'll have to leave it to you guys in warmer climes to get that accurate result from a large sample size!!!
Bryan

[Blue Stocking]

Old sportscar joke--

The British drink their beer warm because Lucas made the first refridgerators.

[bryan and wendy]

you are so right...

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by bryan and wendy

... Now on to the engineering problem, which is where we started...
... it will clearly work...

Just not to the degree that most cool/cold beer drinkers will require.
To obtain a beer, cooler than about 70 degrees F, would require desert conditions, below 5 - 10% RH.
Even then, I doubt most of us would be satisfied.

[Stillraining]

I think your Idea has merit to pre cool the beer as best you can before throwing it in your fridge to finish cooling...therefor reducing by a small degree the power consumption required to get it there.

Just for grins...What are some of the waters temperatures at anchoring depth or a little dingy ride away in beeper water say 30' to 60' of depth in the tropics?

[bryan and wendy]

If I need to be in a desert, that's not good. however I never give up. What if I have two coolers, (as previously posted, because socks come in pairs) and set them up in series, so just like voltage, the effect as additional. If i had enough of these I could then get to absolute zero- except the water would freeze!!!

[s/v Beth]

We use evaporative coolers all the time here in the desert...I do not think you would get much effect. But this thread did have a pearl of wisdom in it ... What about a refrigerator made from an old airtight ammo box or C-locker? Fill it up with goodies and lower it overboard. In our lakes it gets about 50 degrees in about 10 feet of depth. I am not sure how well it would work in the tropics, but in the PNW the water is always between 55 and 45 degrees. Just raise it when you need something out of the fridge, or going to move the home...

[beau]

If you take a couple of cupfuls of Urea garden fertilizer and place it in a bucket, add some seawater. place in the beer. It will be ice cold in 5 minutes.
from the ill spent days of my youth.

[Dave the Canuck]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Now I know dark beers are supposed to be drank at near room temperatures or at lest within the parameters stated by the previous post or two...but I am a cold brew man myself.

Well, I'm looking at a can of Guinness which, some would say, has a good reputation as a dark beer. It states on the can, "Serve extra cold". I can also attest that, during a research trip this spring (yes, beer research cleverly disguised as a driving tour of Southern Ireland) that the various dark brews in Ireland, including Guinness are served cold from the tap.

That being said, it's amazing how good a 70 degree beer tastes on a 100 degree day. I say keep up the research.

[Mule]

Clean or dirty socks????