Alcademics.com

The Ice King of the Internet

I was interviewed recently for a story in a magazine for the iPad/iPhone called The Magazine. During the interview we were joking that I'm the Ice King of the Internet. The quote didn't make it into the story, but I've adopted that as an official title. Hail your new king! In the story, writer Alison Hallet covers the history of ice in drinks, current ice machines, how bars are using big ice, and how to make big ice at home (with my cooler strategy). I get too much credit for bringing an iceberg from Newfoundland to last year's seminar at... Read more →

Ice Info for New Readers

Hello new readers - The best of the ice posts are: - How to make clear ice using a cooler - How to make giant crystal clear ice cubes Then some fun projects with ice are here and here and here and here. Read more →

Making Clear Ice Using a Blast Freezer

A few weeks back I was talking to Charles Joly, beverage director of The Aviary in Chicago, about ice. (This happens a lot.) We were talking about the cooler method I use to make clear ice. The Aviary has a Clinebell machine that makes 300 pound blocks of sexy, clear ice that they then cut up into various shapes for drinks, so they don't need to use the slow-ass cooler method, BUT they also have a blast freezer. I'd always wondered if you could make clear ice fast using the cooler method in a blast freezer, and luckily Joly was... Read more →

A Dramatic Video About Ice from The Aviary

Here's a video from Chicago's molecular mixology bar The Aviary with cool slow-motion shots of ice. And here is an index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics. Read more →

Another Way to Make Clear Ice at Home

I am honored to have as Alcademics readers people who are just as huge cocktail nerds as I am. Many take on projects that I run out of time to do, pass along better information to me, or fill me in on the science I'm missing. Kevin Liu, who has recently started the blog Craft Cocktails at Home and also blogs at ScienceFare.org, tested a method of making clear ice that another reader left in blog comments. In this post, he discusses the science of clear ice and two methods to make it at home. The Igloo Cooler method, pioneered... Read more →

Another Commercial Clear Ice Cube Tray

As you may recall, through much experimentation I figured out a way to make clear ice at home. I later found an ice cube tray that uses the same principle (controlling direction of freezing) to make clear ice. And now someone just pointed me to another ice cube tray that also uses the same principle (and has the same name as the last one). The Polar Ice Crystal Clear Ice Cube Tray is more compact than the other model, but it makes just one big cube at a time. Like the other model, this is an insulated container with a... Read more →

We Have Ice, And We Have Backup Ice

It turns out that Wayne Curtis has a lot of connections in the iceberg business. Wayne and I are co-leading a talk about Exotic Ice at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic on Monday, May 14th and we thought it would be cool to get some iceberg ice for it. Because the rate of precipitation in the Arctic is actually pretty low, it's not that hard to get some ice that is 10,000 or so years old. The air trapped between the thin layers of snow compresses as layers add on top of it, so when you pour a drink over iceberg... Read more →

Come Hear Me Speak at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic May 14th!

I am giving three talks at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic in New York on May 14th. I hope if you're in town you'll come hear them. First sign up for the Industry Invitational (all bar industry and media are welcome). These seminars require an rsvp and you can do that on the schedule page. It's all free. Filtration In Spirits Monday May 14, 2012 11:30am - 12:30pm @ Beverage Media Room: Studio 3 - Second Floor (485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 USA) We don’t often speak about filtration in spirits, yet it is the defining factor in Tennessee... Read more →