Beer is a drink that tastes probably around 100% better when it’s enjoyed cold. While a cold beer is a drink that is instantly refreshing and incredibly satisfying (resulting in that elongated ‘aaaaah’), a warm or hot beer has nowhere near the same effect instead being an unpleasant shock and losing a lot of its crisp taste – instantly tasting weaker and less tangy.

So we’ve established you need to drink beer cold to maximize your enjoyment, but unfortunately this isn’t always easily possible and there are many reasons that we might end up with a warm beer. If you’re travelling for instance then you might be forced to carry your beer in a bag which can cause it to get quickly hot, and likewise even if you’re just drinking at home and you don’t realize how quickly you’re getting through what’s in the fridge then you might find yourself with no cold ones left for your next brewski.

Never fear though – for help is at hand and there are many ways that you can quickly cool down a warm beer to at least near-drinkable levels – whether you are on the move or whether you are at home. Here we will look at a few different techniques.

Freezer: The freezer is colder than the fridge and thus it will cool down your drink faster. If you have just run out of cold drinks then, putting your bottles or cans in the freezer for a short while is one of the best ways to bring it down to a cold temperature fast. Five minutes should do perfectly well, and while alcohol won’t freeze it’s smart not to leave them in too much longer than ten minutes as it can still effect the taste.

Windowsill: If you’re in a hotel room for example and you don’t have access to a freezer or fridge then you will have to use the great outdoors. Stand your beer on the windowsill outside and if it’s a cold evening then you’ll find your drink cools fast.

Air Conditioning: If you’re indoors then you will likely have air conditioning. While you might have it on a mild-ish setting you’ll nevertheless find that the air coming out of the AC unit is very cold while it is being released. Stand your beer right underneath it or right next to it and it will quickly become quite cold.

Cold Body of Water: One easy thing you can do is to drop a can into a cold body of water. This is especially effective with cans but also works with bottles and other containers. The colder the water of course the more likely this is to work. Anything will do though whether it’s your sink filled with cold water or just a nearby lake.

Burying: If you’re in the middle of an open expanse with no body of water, no freezer and no air conditioning then you’re going to have to think outside the (cool)box. Don’t worry though – even in the desert there is no reason for your beer to be hot – simply dig a small hole in the sand, or elsewhere in the dirt, and embed the beer just below the surface. The sun can’t reach here as well and it may even be damp which will cool the beer back down gradually.

Help It On Its Way: Whichever method you opted to use you can also increase the speed at which your bottle or can cools down with other strategies. Blowing cool air, fanning and creating shade (you can use your own body or a blanket) can help to achieve this.

Jeet is working for 1001BeerSteins.com as a marketing head as well as an advertising agent who likes to advertise his products with the help of his blog.

Have a look at all our beer gifts in our presents for him section, at least now you’ll be able to impart that all important info on how to chill it fast!