Condensation On Your Beer != Good

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Condensation On Your Beer != Good

Posted by timothy on Thursday May 2, 2013 @01:43AM from the except-in-england dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Turns out that condensation on your favorite chilled beverage is a bad thing for keeping it cold. Two researchers conducted an experiment in their bathroom proving that condensation can raise the temperature of your beer by nine degrees!"

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wait, will wiping off help? by therealkevinkretz · 2013-05-02 01:44 · Score: 5, Interesting

By the time there's any condensate to wipe off the glass, hasn't the damage (i.e. heat from condensation) already been done? That's what warms the glass and its contents, not the water remaining on the side. So wiping it off won't prevent the warming.
1. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by pchasco · 2013-05-02 01:49 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  For the most part, but I expect the droplets of water increase the surface area of your cold beer container, thereby accelerating the warming process.
2. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by TheRealMindChild · 2013-05-02 01:57 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  By the time there's any condensation, it should have been drank already!
  
  --
  
  "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
3. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by Curunir_wolf · 2013-05-02 02:06 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They're drinking beer out of a can?? Well I guess that makes since. You have to keep the standard mainstream American beer very cold so you can't taste it.
  
  --
  "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
  --- Jerry Garcia
4. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by dreamchaser · 2013-05-02 02:14 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Most beer shouldn't be ice cold to begin with. Good beer at least. I agree with your sentiments about the mass market fizzy piss they call beer though.
5. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by CanadianRealist · 2013-05-02 02:21 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  You're right. Water has a high heat of vaporization. The amount of energy required to vaporize a given amount of water is close to 5 times the amount of energy that would be required to heat that same amount of water from 0 C to 100 C.
  So think of it as being a bit like taking the amount of water in the condensate, heating that to 500 C* and adding it to your beer. (* heating to that temperature without vaporizing)
6. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by Quirkz · 2013-05-02 02:24 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Your reflexive disdain is outdated. Lots of craft brewers are going to cans, at least here in Colorado. Much easier to take camping, lighter, probably cheaper and just as easy to recycle. Also, unlike even brown glass, and much better than pale glass, a can won't let *any* light through, so the beer is less likely to skunk.
  
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  The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
7. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by jones_supa · 2013-05-02 02:30 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  This is true. You will taste much more of the beer when you drink it slightly warmer. Also the reason why the supermarket bulk beer contains phrases such as "drink ice cold!!" -- you can't taste how crappy it is.
8. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by Tx · 2013-05-02 03:01 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Every country has its fair share of fizzy piss lager, but credit where credit is due, I was just reading about how American craft beers have inspired British brewers in recent times, so I think the days of scoffing at US beer should be over.
  
  --
  Oh no... it's the future.
9. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by Ant2 · 2013-05-02 03:02 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  In the time it has taken you guys to debate this, I drank three beers. Fast enough that there was no time for condensation to take place.
  But carry on with your theories. I salute you.
10. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by Trepidity · 2013-05-02 03:12 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  American craft beers are also quite influential in Scandinavia, among both beer drinkers and as an influence on the local brewing scene. Brooklyn Brewery is popular enough that they're opening a brewery in Stockholm to fill local demand without having to ship the beer.
  
  --
  10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
11. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by AlphaWolf_HK · 2013-05-02 03:18 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually what I think is happening is probably the opposite of evaporative cooling. When you sweat for example, it makes you cold because as the water molecules are evaporating into a gas, it takes heat energy with it.
  Now condensation on the other hand results in the opposite. The heat from the water molecule is then put into the system (i.e. the glass of beer) so the water molecule sticks to it because it no longer has the energy it needed to remain in its gas form.
  In which case, wiping the condensation off doesn't reduce the temperature. In fact, it might actually be counterproductive because that water is no longer there to evaporate again, resulting in the cooling effect.
  
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12. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by msauve · 2013-05-02 06:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Even easier. If you don't drink BMC (Bud/Miller/Coors), there's no need to keep it so damn cold to kill the taste.
  
  --
  "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
13. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by nedlohs · 2013-05-02 06:11 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Because they aren't as expensive to make and reasonably easily replicated by someone else who will sell it cheaper?
  Take your $500 bottle of scotch. It's probably aged for 25 or 30 years. So if I decided to make a competitor it would take me 25 years from when I started to bring it to market. And on every one of those 25 years I'd have to decide "I won't sell it all this year and make some money to pay the bills, I'll instead age it some more".
  Though I suspect the real answer is that wine and whiskey snobbery are off the charts. A $500 bottle of wine is quite possibly nicer than a $25 bottle of wine - it's not $475 nicer though. Wine just happens to be a luxury good that people use to show off wealth and hence the wealthy will spend a lot of money on it just so that everyone knows they have a lot of money. Beer doesn't have that status and hence people won't pay such ridiculous sums for it.
  That doesn't mean that "premium" beer isn't much better than "non-premium" beer. In fact it's a great thing for people who happen to like "premium" beers.
14. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by fahrbot-bot · 2013-05-02 07:38 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  In the time it has taken you guys to debate this, I drank three beers. Fast enough that there was no time for condensation to take place. But carry on with your theories. I salute you.
  They debated for 20 minutes and you posted at 11 AM on a Thursday.
  Google: +rehab +<your zipcode>
  
  --
  It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Just in time for cinco de mayo by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-02 01:45 · Score: 5, Interesting

Now how about an experiment about the optimal water quantity for a wet t-shirt contest? Something about capillary action certainly has to be discovered...
Localized Warming! by paysonwelch · 2013-05-02 01:48 · Score: 5, Funny

Save the ales!
1. Re:Localized Warming! by dkleinsc · 2013-05-02 03:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I tried to start that movement, but soon everyone was at lagerheads.
  
  --
  I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
the bathroom is where you return your rented beer by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2013-05-02 01:49 · Score: 5, Funny

>> Two researchers conducted an experiment in their bathroom
A lot of my stories that end with "and then we were both grounded for a month" start that way too.
Fundamental thermodynamics by gentryx · 2013-05-02 01:51 · Score: 5, Funny

Phase transition from gaseous to liquid dissipates thermal energy. News at 18:00.

--
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1. Re:Fundamental thermodynamics by invid · 2013-05-02 01:55 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  High school physics is now a surprise to people. I am sad.
  
  --
  The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
Nine degrees scared me. by Anonymous Coward · 2013-05-02 01:52 · Score: 4, Informative

Note to international readers: That is 9 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not as bad news for the summer days as it looks!
All this assumes super cold beer is desirable by goombah99 · 2013-05-02 01:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

The condensation pays a latent heat penalty, warming the beer when the beer is super cold. But conversely the evaporation pays back the latent heat penalty at some higher temperature. Where the equilibrium point is I'm not sure.
But there is an easy solution to this problem: mist the outside of your beer glass with cold water. This will tie up all the condensation nucleation sites without paying the latent heat penalty.

--
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
1. Re:All this assumes super cold beer is desirable by The+Mighty+Buzzard · 2013-05-02 02:13 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Or you could, you know, just drink it before it's old enough to buy its own beer.
  
  --
  Violence is like duct tape. If it doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough.
Beer that needs chilling is, uh, well... by Wapiti-eater · 2013-05-02 01:57 · Score: 5, Informative

You chill beverage to hide the unpleasant flavors. Good beer is best served just at or slightly below room temp. Keep it in a cool, dark place - it's ready when you are. Colonials ::sigh::

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Senior NCO in the fight against entropy. I've seen things, man. Things no one should have to see.....
1. Re:Beer that needs chilling is, uh, well... by Cloud+K · 2013-05-02 02:42 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Yep, keep it in a cold dark place. England!
What do you call insulated beverage sleeves? by Rob+the+Bold · 2013-05-02 02:07 · Score: 4, Funny

While on a float trip in Arkansas many years ago, a friend in a bikini offered me a titty. Shock turned to disappointment when I learned that in parts of the South Central US, those foam beverage sleeves are known as "Tiddies" for the Texas-based manufacturer of such foam-rubber products. But my beer did stay colder longer, so it wasn't a total loss.

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I am not a crackpot.
come on slashdot seriously by nimbius · 2013-05-02 02:09 · Score: 4, Insightful

this is simple highschool physics. the real problem we need to research and investigate is why do beer bottles unexpectedly and inappropriately become empty.
I have, as a scientist, conducted extensive research myself and have to date been unable to conclude a definitive cause. I implore slashdotters, if you have any experience in this phenomenon or have experienced it personally, please adhere to your diligence as scientists and provide additional research data. bottles, glasses and even steins will exhibit this behavior, so please consider this in your testing protocol.

--
Good people go to bed earlier.
Re:As I'm a teetotaler... by wonkey_monkey · 2013-05-02 02:27 · Score: 4, Funny

And yet you felt compelled to post. What's that about?
Stuff that doesn't interest me happens all the time. If I had the same compunction to comment on all of them I'd never get anything done.
Or is this another case of Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own a Television?

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Only with American beer by fynfuqbg · 2013-05-02 02:50 · Score: 5, Funny

condensation can raise the temperature of your beer by nine degrees!"
This happens only with American beer, in the rest of the world the temperature raises only by five degrees