Physics · DIY · ~5 min read
You’re hosting in an hour. The drinks are warm. How long in the fridge — and does a muggy kitchen change the answer?
A sealed can or bottle loses heat roughly exponentially toward the fridge temperature. The Beverage Cooling simulator integrates that curve for fridge, freezer, ice bath, and running water — with real beverage heat capacities.
The starting temperature is the drink’s environment. If you just carried bottles in from a hot car, use that. If they’ve sat on the counter, ambient air temperature is the right start — and humidity doesn’t change the fridge math much, but it does change how the kitchen feels.
Decide what “cold enough” means — say 6 °C for a lager. In the cooling tool, set start, fridge setpoint, and beverage type, then read the time to target. Ice water beats a fridge by a wide margin; a freezer is faster still but freezes if you forget.
When the curve looks right, hit the camera Snapshot control (top-right). You’ll get a branded 1200×630 card with the headline temperature and the diagram — ready for a group chat that actually wants numbers.
Cooling physics for the clock; psychrometry for the room. Same site, zero accounts — and the snapshot goes straight to Slack or Discord.