At the beginning of summer, I had an idea that I wanted to try; a beer holder molded from solid ice.

When I was a kid, my parents had a large chest freezer in the garage. I have fond memories of freezing balloons full of water into ice bowling balls. My parents would sometimes freeze gallons of water for use in coolers or bowls of ice to use for cooling a bowl of punch. It was my introduction to making molds.

For the beer holder project, I wanted a tall block of ice with six can-sized holes, for holding a six pack within a block of ice, sort of like a mini-cooler completely made of ice. It might even make an attractive centerpiece.

I really wasn't sure how to get a block of ice with six deep holes in it, but I didn't think it was going to be too tough. My first try was to freeze a single aluminum can in a tupperware tub. To keep the can from floating, I filled it with water.

After a few hours, everything was frozen. Of course, the can was also full of ice, which was held in a death grip by the surrounding pool of ice, which had expanded to hold the aluminum can.

To free the can, I waited for the ice to melt a bit. Unfortunately, this took more than one minute, so I got impatient and tried adding a little hot water to the can, so that the ice around the can would melt first. It wasn't going anywhere. The can was locked in the ice. In addition, there was no fingerhold available to grab the can to twist or pull out.

I gave up after a while and was distracted by something else long enough for the ice to melt significantly. By that time, the can slid out, but the melted hole wasn't sharp anymore, it was sloppy.

I thought the ice would look better if it were clear, so I tried boiling the water before I started, but honestly, that never works, and this time was no exception.

I decided on the next try to only fill the cans up halfway with water, and to create the surrounding block of ice in stages. Using this method, I'd be able to freeze cans into place with only an inch of water or so, leaving the rest of the can empty for hot water after the block was solid.

This worked at first, but the second row of ice expanded to squeeze the empty space in the cans, locking them in place. I could melt them out, but it took so much time that the overmelted holes looked terrible.

In trials with six cans, the overmelted holes created another problem. The small diamond-shapes in between the cans were fragile. I had to get the frozen cans out quickly enough that the center diamonds had as much of their structure as possible.

My next try was to wrap the cans with aluminum foil. That didn't work. I also tried wrapping them with paper. That didn't work. I also tried covering them with oil. That didn't work.

Next I wanted to fill the cans with something that wouldn't allow the surrounding ice to crush the cans at all: cement.

I decided on the next try to only fill the cans up halfway with water, and to create the surrounding block of ice in stages. Using this method, I'd be able to freeze cans into place with only an inch of water or so, leaving the rest of the can empty for hot water after the block was solid.

This worked at first, but the second row of ice expanded to squeeze the empty space in the cans, locking them in place. I could melt them out, but it took so much time that the overmelted holes looked terrible.

In trials with six cans, the overmelted holes created another problem. The small diamond-shapes in between the cans were fragile. I had to get the frozen cans out quickly enough that the center diamonds had as much of their structure as possible.

My next try was to wrap the cans with aluminum foil. That didn't work. I also tried wrapping them with paper. That didn't work. I also tried covering them with oil. That didn't work.

Next I wanted to fill the cans with something that wouldn't allow the surrounding ice to crush the cans at all: cement.

This didn't work.

The frozen cement was the same temperature as the frozen ice, and seemed to warm up at the same rate, so the cans refused to exit the ice in anything close to a timely manner.

The resultant ice holes were loose.

And loose holes made for a sloppy-looking display of cans.

I'll admit that sometimes my patience was lacking. As soon as the ice was solid, I wanted to yank out the cans.

I also tried a segment of PVC pipe. This had a similar diameter to a can.

In the tub. I used oil as a mold release.

Once a layer of ice was established, I used a straw to get as much water as possible out of the center void.

When the ice was solid, I had room to add hot water, helping to melt out the PVC bit.

This didn't work any better than the cans. The PVC insulated the ice from the hot water, so it took a very long time before I was able to pry it out.

Next, I was ready to try beer bottles.

I knew the glass would not transfer heat as well as the aluminum had, but I had a plan. I carefully filled a bottle with gravel and froze that in a tub of ice.

Once the bottle was locked in the ice, I tried to dump out the gravel, but it turns out that it is a lot easier to get gravel into a beer bottle than it is to get gravel out of a beer bottle.

A few days later, I tried this tactic again, this time with sand. I filled the bottles with sand and positioned them into the tub half-full of water. After a freeze, the bottles were locked in place, so I dumped out the sand.. well, except for the sand from one bottle.

Apparently a small amount of water had been in one bottle, which had now frozen the sand into a immovable block. I replaced the sand with warm water and it worked!

The ice around the bottles melted immediately and I was able to gently twist out the bottles! Five of the bottles, that is. The sandy icicle was still locked into place.

Thirty minutes later, when I finally wrestled the last bottle out of the block, I saw the real problem. The Foster's beer bottle had a lip on the bottom! Dammit!

A day later, fresh beer bottles spilling out of my trash bag, I was ready to finally succeed, and by God, I did.

Here's how to make a Solid Ice Beer Tray:

Start with a large tub.

Fill six empty and lipless glass beer bottles with dry sand.

Fill the plastic tub with two inches of water and carefully place the sandy bottles into the water, preferably in a 3x2 six-pack arrangement.

Place the entire tub with bottles into the freezer.

You may have to eat the ice cream to make some room.

After a few hours, when the water is frozen solid, add a little more water, but not too much, because you don't want the first layer to melt and dislodge from the bottom of the tub and float to the top.

Add water and let it freeze until the tub is completely full of ice. Dump the sand out of the bottles and carefully re-fill them with warm water. I recommend using a funnel, because any warm water which spills out onto the ice will hasten to ruin the ice block itself.

In mere moments, the ice around the bottles should melt enough to pull them free. Carefully invert the tub and slip out the entire block of ice.

Now your ice block is complete! Store in the freezer until ready for use. Fill with cold beer for best results.

Tests show that the block will hold the bottles for more than three hours when placed outside on a 72-85 degree day, however a steady runoff will flow after about 40 minutes.

In tests the bottles did not fall over and break, they remained standing until all the ice had melted, but your results may vary, by which I mean that they might roll off and shatter.

I did not test whether a fully laden ice caddy will float in the pool, but I'm pretty sure it will.

I hope you have enjoyed this ridiculously long article on making a beer caddy out of solid ice. I hope it was worth the effort.