# Alcohol Doesn't freeze?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 5, 2005, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181 "2005-01-05T09:22:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/1 "2005-01-05T09:22:07Z")
I was out int he cold last night with a group of people and somebody mentioned vodka or something like that. Somebody else said that alchol is a bad idea for cold weather because it doesn’t actually freeze, but rather just gets colder and colder.
Sounds iffy to me, but I’m curious. Is it true? If so, why?
---
### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/2 "2005-01-05T09:25:56Z")
I don’t know if alcohol doesn’t freeze _at all_, but it certainly doesn’t freeze at your average freezer temperature. Best way to drink vodka is after it’s been sitting in the freezer for sometime, it goes a little thick and syrupy.
---
### Author:  [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/3 "2005-01-05T09:29:40Z")
I’ve had two bottles of vodka in my freezer for quite a long time… I can honestly say they’ve never frozen, but I haven’t noticed that they get thick and syrupy either. The brands are Grey Goose and Absolut Citron. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/4 "2005-01-05T09:57:41Z")
It’s a subtle difference and maybe it only seems thicker, I’d be interested in hearing any real facts about it.
---
### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/5 "2005-01-05T10:18:32Z")
I don’t have the exact figures, but I can tell you that Jagermeister at 35% alcohol, will not freeze in my freezer, while a certain other liqeur, at 25% will. (70 and 50 proof, respectively).
But to address the jist of OP, the danger in cold weather doesn’t come from the fact that whiskey or whatnot isn’t frozen when you drink it, it’s that it gives your body the _perception_ it’s warmer, while actually _lowering_ your body temperature.
And it’s very to freeze to death if you’re passed out drunk.
---
### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/6 "2005-01-05T10:20:23Z")
…errr… “gist”, even.
---
### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/7 "2005-01-05T10:28:15Z")
From [HERE](http://barsk.schteino.com/archive/2004/07/the_freezing_vo.html)
> [@](#):
>
> What happens when you put EtOH in water (like, say, when you have Vodka which is simply a solution of EtOH dissolved in the solvent Water) is that you get a condition called ‘freezing point depression’. The relative strenght of the H-bonds formed in pure water is very high compared to other molecules. This means that you do not have to cool water very much to reach a point where the H-bond strengths exceed the translational, rotational, and vibrational energies of the water molecules, and thus the water molecules are effectively bound together (note that this does not mean that there is no motion in water molecules in ice, it just means that there is not enough to break the H-bonds). Because of quantum physical and thermodynamic reasons that I will not go into here, the lowest energy form of these H-bond interactinos happens to be in a hexagon.
>
> The introduction of other molecules, however, disrupts the H-bonding of water. Lower H-bonding frequencies means that you have to cool the solution much more in order to get the molecules in the solution to ‘lock into place’ and form a solid state. This is known as the freezing point depression. Fortunately, there is a constant rate at which this happens, called the freezing point depression constant and it is -1.86C per mole solute per kg solvent. Multiply this number by the solution’s molality and you get the freezing point of the solution. So, here are the calculations for Vodka (you can also see these calculations for isopropyl alcohol (which is not the kind we drink, it is technically propanol which has a carbon chain that is one C longer than EtOH).
>
> **80 Proof** :
> 40% alcohol thus 40% EtOH and 60% H20. Assume we are going to make 1kg which is ~1L of vodka.
> EtOH has a molecular weight of ~46g/mol.
> 400g/46gmol^-1 = 8.696 mol EtOH
> 600g H20 = 0.6 kg H20
> 8.696/0.6 = 14.49 \* -1.86 = -26.59C \* 1.8 + 32 = **-16.51F**
>
> **100 Proof** 50% water 50% EtOH:
> 500g EtOH/46gmol^-1 = 10.87mol EtOH/0.5kg H20 = 21.74 \* -1.86 = -40.43C \* 1.8 + 32 = **40.78F**
It’ll freeze. But not in a normal kitchen freezer.
---
### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/8 "2005-01-05T10:29:19Z")
… of course, that should be NEGATIVE 40.78
---
### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/9 "2005-01-05T10:37:54Z")
What I’ve heard is that alcohol, because it freezes at a very low temperature, will still be liquid when it is too cold to safely drink, and you can cause yourself damage to your esophagus by drinking it. Second, even though it “burns” you, it is actually making you colder, so it fools you into thinking it is warming you up when actually it is cooling you down. Third, it dilates your blood vessels, making your body lose more heat.
---
### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/10 "2005-01-05T10:59:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> 80 Proof:… = -16.51F
I can vouch for this - when I lived in a house with a decent freezer (ie it had a temperature gauge), -25c was perfect for just bringing vodka to freezing, so you’d get a slush of ice crystals 🙂
---
### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/11 "2005-01-05T11:05:11Z")
[cite](http://www.ashchem.com/adc/chemicals/faq_answer.asp?typeID=3&is_header=N)
---
### Author:  [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/12 "2005-01-05T11:17:51Z")
Pure ethanol freezes at approx. -114 degrees C, which is _very_ cold. I suspect that drinking any liquid cooled to that temperature would be dangerous.
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/13 "2005-01-05T12:00:09Z")
Yep, there is a danger in very cold liquids, because you instinctively think “Well, if it’s still liquid, it can’t be _that_ cold.”
When I worked in a lab, we used a mixture of dry ice and acetone to freeze samples. That was about -77ºC (-106ºF), well into the brass-monkey zone. One day, while brain was not engaged, I hooked a sample out with bare hands. Only the very tip of one finger contacted the liquid, but I sure knew about it.
---
### Author:  [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/14 "2005-01-05T12:27:26Z")
But come on… nobody’s storing their whiskey at -106… Be it in your freezer or on your porch on in your hip flask, it ain’t gonna _flash-freeze_ your esophagus.
It makes you _feel warm_. \<— That’s the problem.
---
### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/15 "2005-01-05T12:48:44Z")
> [@Eleusis](#):
>
> But come on… nobody’s storing their whiskey at -106… Be it in your freezer or on your porch on in your hip flask, it ain’t gonna _flash-freeze_ your esophagus.
>
> It makes you _feel warm_. \<— That’s the problem.
Yes, that’s probably the main reason. But in Siberia, say, where temperatures of [-50ºC](http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/24688.html) are not unheard of (that’s a link to current temperatures, I believe) you could certainly get frostbite if you drank vodka that was still liquid.
---
### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/16 "2005-01-05T14:28:45Z")
I’ve been backpacking in the winter at temps of -20 to -30 F and some folks still bring alcohol along. At those temps, you can cause frostbite problems to the throat as well as hypothermia problems by introducing very cold liquids into your body core.
This is without taking in the problems of alcohol being a vasal dialator, which is a serious enough problem.
---
### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2005, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/17 "2005-01-05T15:18:04Z")
> [@jinwicked](#):
>
> I’ve had two bottles of vodka in my freezer for quite a long time… I can honestly say they’ve never frozen, but I haven’t noticed that they get thick and syrupy either. The brands are Grey Goose and Absolut Citron. 🙂
This has been my experience as well. I have heard for a long time that Vodka gets thicker in the freezer, but I have not noticed it to any degree.
BTW, Welcome back Jin!
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/18 "2005-01-06T22:21:21Z")
I know what **Death Ray** means. It’s not the consistency of motor oil, but there is a slight sluggishness to the vodka (or whiskey, in my case) as you pour it out of the cold, frost-covered bottle.
I always thought the sluggishness of the liquor was from the partial freezing of the water in which the alcohol was dissolved.
---
### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/19 "2005-01-07T00:20:44Z")
Next time I’m really really bored at work, I’ll make up some ethanol/water solutions of varying strenghts, stick them in our -70 C freezer, and see which ones will freeze.
Well. To be honest, I probably won’t. But I could. And that’s what’s important, after all.
---
### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [January 7, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181/20 "2005-01-07T00:29:29Z")
> [@jinwicked](#):
>
> I’ve had two bottles of vodka in my freezer for quite a long time…
By the way, why do people do this? Just to reduce the amount of water (melted ice) in mixed drinks?
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/alcohol-doesnt-freeze/283181.md?page=2)