What's the fastest way to chill your World Cup beer?

The TV's cued up, the snacks are beckoning. Then you remember: you forgot to chill the beer. 

We've tested eight of the internet's most popular methods and hacks to discover the very best way to get a beer chilled in less time than it takes to run to the corner shop.

Less rigorous sources say that some methods we tested worked well, but we found that they didn't.

Here we reveal – in reverse order – the least to most effective ways we've discovered to chill a beer fast.

Verdict: don't bother with these

1. Run the bottle under a cold tap for three minutes

After running a bottle under a cold tap, we recorded a 2.5°C temperature fall. However, you're still left with a lukewarm beer, and it's also incredibly wasteful.

Not a great start.

2. Submerge the bottle in a bucket of cold water

You get identical results in only three minutes by filling a bucket with enough cold water to completely submerge the bottle..

After 30 minutes, this led to a measly 2.5°C temperature fall, and a lukewarm 18°C beer.

Best alcohol-free beer: See whether our panel rated Beck's, Peroni, Stella Artois, Aldi or Lidl

Verdict: OK if you've got no ice

3. Put the bottle in a bowl of water covered with a wet flannel

Put the flannel-covered bowl in a breezy location. The idea is that the breeze evaporates the water from the towel and thus cools the bottle.

It's a bit of a faff, however, we found it's more effective than just cold water. This method dropped the temperature by 3.3°C in just 30 minutes.

It's also a useful method if you're caught outside without ice, a fridge or a freezer (unless you have access to a cool stream, of course).

4. Put the bottle on the bottom shelf of the fridge

The bottom of the fridge is the coldest section, as cold air sinks (unless there is a freezer compartment at the top). 

We put a bottle in the bottom of a fridge for 30 minutes and recorded the change in temperature.

The temperature dropped by an underwhelming 3.6°C, which is only a tiny bit better than the air cooling method above.

Now here's a question: will an at-home beer tap actually save you money on pints?

Verdict: Pretty fast (but we found faster)

5. Cover the bottle with wet tissue and put it in the freezer

You might see hacks online swearing by this method. However, we found it didn't work as well as just putting the bottle in the freezer without wet tissue around it. 

The wet tissue is really messy. too.

Still, it did drop the temperature of a beer by 11.6°C in just 30 minutes.

6. Put the bottle in the freezer

There's a risk of shattered glass, especially if you've already had a few or get distracted by the game and leave them in for too long. However, putting your beer in the freezer is a shortcut to cold beer that many people have taken.

And it works.

Just 30 minutes at the back of the middle drawer (the coldest part of the freezer), saw the temperature drop by an impressive 12.7°C leaving the beer very drinkable at just under 8°C. Overall, a great way to chill a beer fast.

7. Put the bottle in a bucket of iced water

We put 1kg of ice in a bucket and filled it with enough water to submerge the bottle.

The results were pretty spectacular, with the temperature of the beer dropping 16.6°C in just 30 minutes. Refreshing.

No more room in your fridge for cold drinks? Our intensive testing reveals the best cool boxes for keeping drinks chilled for longer

Verdict: The fastest way to chill beer

8. Put the bottle in a bucket of iced water with salt

Without a doubt, this is the most-effective and fastest way to chill a beer. 

It's also a useful hack to know for future hosting when your fridge and freezer are both already filled to bursting, and you need to cool down drinks fast.

We put 1kg of ice in a bucket with enough water to fully submerge a bottle and then added 100g of salt.

In just half an hour, the temperature of the beer dropped by 18.9°C, leaving the beer at a chilled 1.6°C. After an hour, we managed to get the temperature of the beer down to a little below 0°C with this method.

If you need to chill beers fast for the World Cup, this is the way to do it.

Expert view: Why does adding salt chill drinks more quickly?

Which? senior scientific adviser, Monika Gil explains:

'While the temperature of a bucket of ice and water might hover around - or slightly above - 0°C, adding salt drops the temperature to less than zero.

'But how does it work? In regular ice water at 0°C, a dynamic equilibrium exists where freezing and melting occur at the same rate. Adding salt disrupts this balance through a process called freezing point depression.

'The dissolved salt ions block water molecules from refreezing, while the melting process continues uninterrupted. Melting is endothermic, meaning the ice must absorb thermal energy from its environment to liquefy. Without the ability to refreeze, the slush aggressively draws this heat from its immediate surroundings, including your drink, chilling it incredibly fast and ultimately, leaving it colder.'

Find out more about how Which? isn't influenced by product manufacturers or retailers, and how your support helps us to stay editorially independent

How we found the best chilling method

At Which? we don't believe in doing things by halves.

Our product reviews are based on intensive tests that take time to conduct.

Before we publish a fridge freezer review, for example, we put fridge freezers through more than 50 individual tests to assess which are the best and worst.

While there's less at stake trying to bring a drink to temperature than when buying your next big appliance, rest assured that, like all testing at Which?, the chilling results in this table are accurate, robust and repeatable.

We used bottled beer for our test, but you should see the same methods work well with other bottled drinks and cans.

For a more elegant way to store beer, see our guide to the best under-counter fridges

How cold should you serve your drinks?

Coldest doesn't always mean best. Here are the ideal serving temperatures for beer vs other popular beverages.

• Standard lager 5-8°C
• 'Extra cold' lagers 0-5°C
• Cask ales 11-13°C
• Prosecco 6-8°C
• Champagne 8-10°C
• White wine 8-12°C
• Red wine 12-18°C
• Dessert wine 5-7°C

Our fridge reviews and wine cooler reviews reveal the appliances that, as well as excelling at chilling, keep your drinks at a steady temperature, even if the temperature in the room fluctuates.

Need ice for your drink? Read our advice on how to buy the best ice cube maker