How to keep a box of Cider chilled without using a fridge.

This may be of interest if you have bought a box of cider for home. I have found a cheap way of keeping a box of Cider at a nice temperate if you don't have a suitable fridge to keep it in.
As you know these cider boxes are 15" long x 11" width x 10" high so a bit large to fit in your domestic fridge, well unless you don't keep any food in it :)

This box contains 20 Litres (35.2 Pints) so getting it cold enough is not easy but I have a solution to the problem which I have tried and seems to work well.

You will need to buy a metal baking tray and three "ice packs"
The baking tray I use is 320mm x 210mm but you can use any as long as its a metal one and sits inside the box. The ice packs I use are 170mm x 90mm so three of these side by side cover the baking tray perfectly. How many you need to use will depend on size of the ice packs and the baking tray.

First thing to do is get a retractable Stanley knife and set the blade depth to about 10mm, the reason for limiting the length of blade is because we are going to cut into the box and I don't want to risk cutting the bag. The bag should be well clear of the top of the box. The cardboard seems to be around 8mm thick.
We need to cut a door into the top, as you can see in my photograph below I have cut three sides to a door, its best to cut this hole about an inch from the edges to retain box strength.
Once you have cut the three edges, score a shallow line to form a sort of hinge.

Now lift the cardboard door up (you may have to go back over some of the cuts if you didn't quite make them deep enough.)

Place your baking tray on top of the bag making sure that its in the centre. Now place the ice packs from your freezer onto the baking tray and shut the door down to keep the cold in.

Because the ice packs are in contact with the metal baking tray and the baking tray has a large surface area that is in contact with the cider this will dramatically cool down the Cider quickly.
Remember there is NO air in the bag, the liquid fills the entire space of the bag.

The cold temperature will sink through the Cider and keep it cold for many hours.
I have found that the best way is to have 6 ice packs, 3 in the freezer while you have 3 in the cider box and you can simply swap them out every day to keep the temperature down. I guess you could use more or larger ice packs to get it really cold if you wanted to.

Ice Packs are available from most shops and Amazon :


Here is a photograph of the top of the cider box showing the "hinged door" that I have cut into it using a retractable Stanley knife.

Door cut into top of cider box.

Here is a photograph showing the thee ice packs sitting in the baking tray that is floating on top of the bag of cider.

The ice packs on top of baking tray on top of the bag of Cider.

Hope someone finds this of use.

Thanks
Andy