Festival season is approaching and this year I want to be prepared better
For the summerjam festival, I want to bring a canister of a Jamaican style rum punch. I don’t have active cooling from when I leave home on Thursday morning and I want my punch to stay cool as long as possible.
I plan to store the frozen punch (with or without alcohol?) in a cooling box with some additional cooling pads.
The ratio of the punch I’m planning to do is roughly
1 Bottle White Overproof (62%)
140 cl Juice (Orange & Pineapple)
18 cl Grenadine or Strawberry Syrup
15 cl Lime Juice
1 cl Angostura Bitters
50 cl of Water to achieve the desired dilution as I cannot shake the drink on site.
edit.
thinking about recipes, I believe I should add something spice maybe like hibiscus tea or ginger syrup or grapefruit juice
edit end.
Based on this recipe:
I’m particularly unsure about freezing and about the amount of water. I want to freeze everything in a 3-5 l canister. (like this one: https://amzn.eu/d/0EMbw02 )
My target ABV is 14,5%. Does this sound reasonable? If calculated correctly I need 50 cl of water.
Should I freeze the punch before adding rum and add the rum onsite? Should I add the rum before freezing?
It might freeze with alcohol but melt faster.
Do I risk the separation of alcohol and water while freezing?
If I freeze without alcohol will I receive a well-mixed pre-mix - not only the water while fruit is still frozen?
Do you have any experience with batched and frozen punches or bowls? What do you recommend? Do you have better recipes? Do you have better ideas for cooling a batched punch?
Why not? Bring a shaker Some festivals sell ice cubes on site, not sure if summerjam has this possibility.
I would leave the rum out, exactly for the stated reasons (harder to freeze, risk of separation). Downside is cooling the rum part consumes energy, advantage is that you still have control over alcohol strength.
I would rethink that. You will have one giant block of ice that slowly melts away as a whole. Maybe it’s worth thinking about smaller “bite-size” portions. Those can be stored toghether but unfrozen separately. Think ice cube tray but with large punch cubes. That canister you linked will just be a big frozen block of ice covered with plastic → impossible to break down. You will only be able to drink what has already melted. I remember having frozen water bottles and nothing to drink because they didn’t melt fast enough. I see this beeing similar.
I don’t know if you’ll achieve much with additional cooling. I would rather focus on insulation. Get a really well insulated box (or maybe even box in a box) that you only rarely have to open (–> batches!). I once took a styrofoam box full of ice cubes to a tropical beach early morning. By the end of the day there were still around half of the ice cubes left, and that was only 2cm styrofoam and a simple lid with quite frequent opening.
As to the mixing/proportions/freezing/unfreezing etc: Do a trial run!
Summerjam Campsite is scattered along the lake and the place I want to camp is far from any service to source Ice Cubes.
Freezing separately seems to be the best option, I agree.
The idea is that a giant block will stay frozen longer than smaller portions as the relative surface is smaller. As for cocktails one big ice block should melt slower than multiple small ones.
I like the idea of batching the batch to keep parts unopened and isolated longer. The largest regular ice cubes are 5cm cubes with 125 ml volume, adding 3-4 cl of rum might produce a decent drink.
Can the advantage of separate cooling of small batches compensate for the disadvantage of the larger surface area?
Maybe a mix could help: Freeze 3 1 liter bottles. Isolate each bottle individually, isolate all of them in a box.
An empty milk or juice carton can produce a quader / cube-like shape at low cost. Stacking them closely should almost give you the same volume/size advantage. But yeah, maybe individually frozen bottles are easier to handle. I would still run a test how long it takes to unfreeze a bottle. Just to avoid the “Who wants rum punch? Ok, give me 6 hours…”-situation.
Added bonus of checking the recipe and of course: rum punch! Can’t experiment enough, imho
Ich mache großes Eis in Isolierboxen ohne Deckel in der TK-Truhe. Das macht erstens klares Eis und zweitens richtig großes. So ein Riesen-Eisklumpen schmilzt dann recht langsam – vor allem, wenn der vorgemichte Punch auch schon gut kalt ist. Dann kann alles rein ohne Probleme.
Die steigende Dillution beim Schmelzen des Eisblocks ist ja auch eines der charakteristischen Merkmale eines Punches
Ich würde aber nicht Wasser und Punch getrennt frieren und dann zusammenbringen. Ich will den Punch schon selbst frieren und dann mit Alkohol auftauen.
Frag mal bei Getränkehändlern, in Nürnberg beim Landbierparadies, kann man diese 5l Kartoffelsalateimer kaufen. Die nehmen diese Eimer machen die sauber und frieren danach damit das Eis. Wenn man ein größeres Fass Bier kauft, legt man das Eis aus dem Eimer auf das Fass.
Hält ewig und das Bier im Fass bleibt schön kalt. Evtl. mal bei einem Metzger oder ähnlichen Nachfragen ob der dir so einen Eimer voll Wasser einfrieren kann. So ein Block, wenn du den nicht unbedingt in die Sonne stellst hält der gefühlt ewig
Für solche Diskussionen liebe ich das Forum Ich habe auch schon in so eine Richtung überlegt und werde vrsl in kleineren Mengen testen wie man Cocktails im Sommer gut mitnehmen kann.
Vielleicht bietet sich bei dir ja auch die Gelegenheit das vorher mal in kleinerem Rahmen zu testen?
It might be a good idea to wrap the neopren insulatat bottles with something reflective like aluminum foil. This way (black?) neoprene absorbs lesser heat.
Couldn’t you keep it in the fridge at home and then transfer it to an insulated bottle which would keep it cool for a while? Something like this- BUZIO Stainless Steel Water Bottle 2L / 64oz, Vacuum Insulated Water Bottle with Straw Lid and Flex Cap Cold for 48 Hrs, Hot for 24 Hrs Double Wall Wide Mouth BPA Free Leak Proof, Black https://amzn.eu/d/eY54ORL
I probably use something like this for the rum and will freeze the batched punch without alcohol in 0,33l juice cartons and transport them double isolated in a box in box system.
Ich habe zuhause die Zutaten ohne Rum mit Eis im Shaker gemixt (also mehrere Runden) und in eine Thermoskanne gefüllt. Vor Ort dann mit Rum und etwas Eis gemixt.
Funktioniert gut, war aber auch nicht lange unterwegs
Some festivals sell ice cubes on site, not sure if summerjam has this possibility.
Ich habe auch schon in so eine Richtung überlegt und werde vrsl in kleineren Mengen testen wie man Cocktails im Sommer gut mitnehmen kann.
