The Science Behind Koozies®

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Koozies®  aren’t just for fun. They aren’t just great little memories you keep stashed away in a kitchen drawer to pull out once every now and then and think, “Aw, that bachelorette trip was so fun,” or “I’ll never forget that float down the river!” There is an actual science behind Koozies®. They aren’t just a buffer between your hand heat and your beer.

Just a brief history to keep in mind, Koozies® is actually a brand name, not just the name of the product. It’s kind of like how everyone says Kleenex® for tissues and Chapstick® for lip balm. Koozies® is an owned and registered trademark name. However, there are many nicknames for Koozies®, our own personal favorite spin off name is the can hugger.

What Koozies® actually were designed for is to insulate your beer. If you grab a beer at a tailgate, odds are you’re going to get to talking and, before you know it, you’ve had two sips of a beer that is now lukewarm and basically un-drinkable. Then what are you going to do? You can’t throw away and waste a nearly full beer, but you also don’t want to drink something that’s not refreshing in the slightest anymore. A real tailgate champion knows to throw on a can hugger as soon as the beer leaves the cooler.

We’re all used to that one girl at dinner who pretends to understand the differences in how wines taste, but now there’s a new subculture of brew bro experts arising in our midst. The craft beer industry is booming and people are now taking beer tasting as seriously as some take wine tasting. This just adds a whole new reason to keep a beer coolio on hand! Beer scientifically is supposed to be served at a certain temperature in order for the flavors to taste just right. Too cold is even a no-no for most beers!

If beer is too cold, some of the flavors are literally “frozen” out, and if a beer is too hot, that means too much oxygen has mixed in with the beer and has “aired out” the flavor.

Here comes the real science behind the beer coolie straight from Craft Beer:

“…the beer coolie’s most important job is to stop water droplets from forming on the can when you’re enjoying a beer in high humidity air. Each and every drop that forms adds heat into the can. This process is known as latent heat (or more specifically condensational warming), and although it seems mysterious, chances are good that you are already familiar with the opposite scientific process. Step out of a pool on a hot summer day, and you feel cold. This evaporational cooling is the latent heat loss from the liquid water evaporating into water vapor gas. When water vapor condenses back into a liquid, it creates a similar amount of heat.”

There you have it folks! The can hugger isn’t just a fun party gift, an easy way to mark a memory, or a can sleeve to keep your hand from getting cold. There is real science behind the Koozies ®.

At Live Love Gameday®, we would put forth that the Koozie’s® second most important job is to start conversations at tailgates. Check out our fun beer can huger options online here, and make sure you’re prepared for game day!