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Condensation On Your Beer != Good

Posted by timothy on 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!"

16 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. wait, will wiping off help? by therealkevinkretz · · 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 dreamchaser · · 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.

    2. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by Ant2 · · 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.

    3. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by AlphaWolf_HK · · 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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    4. Re: wait, will wiping off help? by msauve · · 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
    5. Re:wait, will wiping off help? by nedlohs · · 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.

  2. Just in time for cinco de mayo by Anonymous Coward · · 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...

  3. Localized Warming! by paysonwelch · · Score: 5, Funny

    Save the ales!

    1. Re:Localized Warming! by dkleinsc · · 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/
  4. the bathroom is where you return your rented beer by xxxJonBoyxxx · · 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.

  5. Fundamental thermodynamics by gentryx · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    Computer simulation made easy -- LibGeoDecomp
  6. All this assumes super cold beer is desirable by goombah99 · · 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 · · 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.
  7. Beer that needs chilling is, uh, well... by Wapiti-eater · · 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::

    --
    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 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yep, keep it in a cold dark place. England!

  8. Only with American beer by fynfuqbg · · 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