Cold wine traveling down your throat and into you belly is a refreshing feeling, whether it be a lightly chilled red or thoroughly chilled white, rosé, or bottle of bubbly. But not many wines come pre-chilled, which is unfortunate, because I am always grabbing a bottle at the last minute, especially during the summer, when impromptu front porch hangs are in full swing.
The other day I was picking out a bottle of slightly-overpriced bubbly to take to a friend when I realized the variety I had settled on didn’t come pre-chilled. Luckily, the store in question was a little bougie, so they had a built-in wine chiller—a swirling water bath that cooled my Champagne down to serving temp in mere minutes. “I wish I had one of these at home,” I thought, not realizing that I already did. water cooled chiller plant
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If you have an immersion circulator, you probably use it to cook all sorts of tasty treats sous-vide but, according to one clever Redditor, that baby can cool as well as it can cook, making it the perfect at-home wine chiller (and fun party trick). Just set your circulator as low as it will go—my Anova goes down to 32℉—and add some ice cubes to help it drop down. Once the bath is nice and cold, set the bottle of whatever you intend to drink down in the bath for 10 minutes or so. Remove it, dry the bottle off, and serve (in chilled glasses, for extra credit).
This move isn’t limited to wine. You can use your DIY chiller to chill beer, vodka, or even nonalcoholic beverages like Diet Coke. (Diet Coke is exquisite when properly chilled, but tastes like blood and metal when served warm.)
Claire is Lifehacker's Senior Food Editor. She has a B.S. in chemistry, a decade of food journalism experience, and a deep love for mayonnaise and MSG.
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