Frozen Vodka?

CptSternn

Vodka, as we all know, should not freeze. The thing is, over the past few weeks I have bought vodka, Smirnoff to be precise, at two different shops in town (one of which was Tesco) and the brand new unopened bottle froze like water. Well, almost - about 10% - 15% was still liquid but the rest was one big chunk of ice.

No flatmates or anyone else with access to nick it and the bottles were unopened and it still froze.

Anyone else ever see this?

eurokev

Id love to know the answer for this too. I work in an offy and we keep vodka in the freezer for customers and have seen this happen with so many different brands. About 1 in 25 of each will freeze.

I cant put it down to a temperature change in the freezer because there are other unfrozen bottles in there too. The bottles that freeze are unopened, so its not customers tampering with them.

Only conclusion I can come up with is that there is maybe air getting in through a bad seal and causing some sort of insulated super freezing, or a quality control issue which I would really doubt. Smirnoff would probably be the most frequent 'freezer' also.

I think the bad seal might be something as I would notice some loose caps especially with smirnoff when handling the bottles so often.

Cody Pomeray

OP did you freeze this in a deep freeze, or in a regular fridge freezer?

I could see how the former could possibly freeze it.

pa990

Check if the vodka is 40% or 37.5% abv

I've found that the 37.5% stuff will go slushy but the 40% never does, it only becomes a bit less viscose.


Edit.
I keep my vodka in an American style freezer at about -24°c

Alun

My wife brings back 40% vodka (Pan Tadeusz) from Poland and that freezes at -18C in our home freezer.

Seamus1964

If your liquor is freezing, someone is watering it down.

rubadub

pa990 wrote: »

Check if the vodka is 40% or 37.5% abv

It is 37.5%, smirnoff red and he said he bought it here

Seamus1964 wrote: »

If your liquor is freezing, someone is watering it down.

he said the bottle is unopened, otherwise I would probably think the same, I have a spirit hydrometer and was able to tell mine was watered down.

Captain morgan is 35% and always goes slushy on me. Sometimes I get stronger stuff going slushy.

It might be something to do with impurities or imperfections in the vodka or the glass, not sure, but there is that trick you can do to make beer freeze instantly.

It could be counterfeit vodka, my mate got some in one of the main supermarkets. Yet another reason I would never consider buying smirnoff red, far more likely to be counterfeited.

pa990

I avoid smifnoff.

Look for stolichnaya or Russian standard when they're on special offer.

Far better than smifnof for only a few euro more.

If money is tight, putinoff vodka from either aldi or lidl, isnt a bad choice either for the money.


Edit
Smirnoff and Russian standard are both on offer in tesco at the moment for €18 / 70cl

Try the Russian standard. . See if that freezes

craftbeer2014

Smirnoff is poor quality vodka, freezing is most likely from impurities or low quality ingredients. Like one of previous users mentioned, stick with stoli or even absolute

enda1

Vodka just like all other alcoholic drinks does freeze, it's just a matter of temperature.

Marcus Halberstram

Smirnoff always freezes because it is ****.