Home Distiller

A friend of mine took some alcohol of mine; 105 proof, and had it in a 2 liter bottle in the freezer. After a week or so, decided to transfer it to several empty Crown Royal bottles in his den. Upon his arrival back home, he had the wrath of his wife who said all the bottles had craked and poured all the alcohol out. I can understand that during the trip to the freezer the alcohol contracted and then when warm, enclosed in the tightly sealed bottle expanded and broke. Can someone please give me the better explanation?

Thnaks

Upon his arrival back home, he had the wrath of his wife who said all the bottles had craked and poured all the alcohol out.

A likely story. Sound like a "good" excuse

Sounds like your wife mistaken your crown bottles full of hooch as Mexican piñatas and smashed them.

Crown bottles are very heavy and sturdy, if they were going to crack, it would have been at the time that the alcohol was poured in, not at some later time. There's some other reason why they cracked.


Bull.

It happened to me. I know it was liquid expanding as it warmed up. See my post in dumb things that we have done. I don't think it was your wife. Need expansion space and loose bottle cap. should of said post was in tell us about mistakes.

I had a tightly sealed gallon jug of good corn likker shatter like that. It was pretty high proof and sealed tight. I always assumed it was the expansion with rising temperature.

Water expands when frozen. Contracts when thawing. It expands little when heated. Glass if can be sensitive to fast temperature changes. If he froze the bottle, it may have cracked if warmed to quickly.

Alcohol isn't water, and since it won't freeze solid, it contracts a LOT when cooled to freezer temps(0°F, give or take a few). So it would have expended a lot when coming back up to room temp.

Now, the real question is: why the hell did he put the 2 liters in the freezer to begin with? WTF is up with that?

Barney Fife wrote:Now, the real question is: why the hell did he put the 2 liters in the freezer to begin with? WTF is up with that?

Totally agree, doesn't make sense!

junkyard dawg wrote:I had a tightly sealed gallon jug of good corn likker shatter like that. It was pretty high proof and sealed tight. I always assumed it was the expansion with rising temperature.

Running to my hiding spot to loosen those damn lids!!

blind drunk wrote:

junkyard dawg wrote:I had a tightly sealed gallon jug of good corn likker shatter like that. It was pretty high proof and sealed tight. I always assumed it was the expansion with rising temperature.

Running to my hiding spot to loosen those damn lids!!

Another reason to use corks.

Barney Fife wrote:Alcohol isn't water, and since it won't freeze solid, it contracts a LOT when cooled to freezer temps(0°F, give or take a few). So it would have expended a lot when coming back up to room temp.

Now, the real question is: why the hell did he put the 2 liters in the freezer to begin with? WTF is up with that?

Cold for drankin? Lotsa folks like it really cold. Can't taste it though. Most layfolks don't wanna taste it.

Another reason to use corks.

Good idea! Gotta find those really wide gallon corks

blind drunk wrote:Good idea! Gotta find those really wide gallon corks

All the hardware stores around here carry a wide assortment. From little bitty to gallon jug size.

dont know how that would work, water expands when frozen and alcohol contracts.
Id thank it whould depend on how much water%/alcohol% .I have placed alcohol in
home freezer with no problems.iv also had some stored outside in winter with nothing happening.
but did have some wine that pushed the corks out.

I've gone back to the 4 ply coffee filter and rubber band for now.

if that bottle went due to pressure, im certain you would have chunks of glass all over that room.

Bloody interesting post billjoat. Thanks for posting.

if that bottle went due to pressure, im certain you would have chunks of glass all over that room.

Not necessarily. It would depend on how much head space he left in the bottles. Air compresses, but liquids do not, so if he left very little head space, there was very little pressure built up before the expanding liquid hydraulically forced the bottle to break at its weakest spot. And if he left no air space, forget it, no pressure even built-up before the hydraulic action overtook the glass.

Here's the deal, the higher the percentage of the alcohol is the more it will expand, and I assume contract, I'm not sure on the second part. This is why 750mill spirit bottles are designed with more head space then a 750mill wine bottle. If you put 750mill of 100 proof liquor in a wine bottle and put it in a hot car the cork will pop, if it's a screw on cap the bottle will break.

What I've been trying to say, only not so eloquently.....

Smokehouse Shiner wrote:

blind drunk wrote:Good idea! Gotta find those really wide gallon corks

All the hardware stores around here carry a wide assortment. From little bitty to gallon jug size.

Very hard to find them in my part of Australia (rural; but I've looked about a bit in the city).
I've recently bought some small ceramic jars with the big corks, in what we call opportunity shops, and rasped the corks down to the size I want.

Dnderhead wrote:dont know how that would work, water expands when frozen and alcohol contracts.
Id thank it whould depend on how much water%/alcohol% .I have placed alcohol in
home freezer with no problems.iv also had some stored outside in winter with nothing happening.
but did have some wine that pushed the corks out.

If the bottles had very little air space,as they cooled after being placed in the freezer,they may have imploded from vacuum.
Just a theory, I always leave ample air space in my bottles, just in case.

On the subject of corks......

I use DJ's (demijohns) theses are 1 gallon jars, can you use the red rubber corks? I think they are neoprene? Or would I be best using silver foil & rubber band?

redsoxs wrote:On the subject of corks......

I use DJ's (demijohns) theses are 1 gallon jars, can you use the red rubber corks? I think they are neoprene? Or would I be best using silver foil & rubber band?

Definately do not use rubber. The red ones.
I used rubber corks on similar jars and the spirit after a while stank of rubber.
I have just bought two silicon (I think; the white ones) 'corks' and they seem fine but they were over nine dollars EACH.
And because the jars are obsolete (one imperial gallon) I can't get lids.
So, recently I have been to the local opportunity shops (charity shops selling used clothing and household stuff) and bought some jars with cork stoppers.
Various sizes, from fifty cents to nearly two dollars depending on size and luck.
I spend a little time on them with a rasp if they are too big, do it carefully or they break.
I use them for the big wide-mouth jars too, the original lids eventually rust.