As the mini-heatwave continues to sizzle the UK, many will be flocking to their back gardens or parks to soak up the rays. When the sun is shining, and the barbecues sizzling, there is only one thing left to enjoy: an ice cold beer.

However, the trick is getting your beer as cold as possible, as quickly as possible, when you inevitably forget to chill it. Looking at the eight popular techniques and tricks to the test to find the quickest way to chill a beer faster than a dash to the local shop, Which? has revealed the quickest way to achieve ice cold beer at home, and all you need is an item you will already have in your kitchen cupboard. Undeniably, this cheap trick is the quickest and most efficient method to chill a beer.

It will also come in handy for future gatherings when your fridge and freezer are already packed to the brim, and you need to cool drinks swiftly.

Filling a bucket with 1kg of ice and enough water to fully immerse a bottle, then adding 100 grams of salt will cool your beers in no time. In just 30 minutes, Which? found the beer's temperature plummeted by 18.9°C, resulting in a nicely chilled beer at 1.6°C. After an hour, using this technique the beer's temperature was lowered to slightly below 0°C.

The experiment yielded impressive results, with the beer's temperature plummeting by a whopping 16.6°C in just half an hour - certainly a refreshing outcome.

However, this method does come with its risks, particularly if you've already indulged in a few drinks or become engrossed in your barbecue duties and forget about your chilling brews.

Despite this, many have found that stashing their beers in the freezer is a quick and effective way to achieve a cold beverage.

And indeed, it does work. A mere 30 minutes nestled at the back of the middle drawer (the chilliest part of the freezer) resulted in a significant temperature decrease of 12.7°C, rendering the beer perfectly chilled at just under 8°C. All in all, it's a fantastic method for rapidly cooling your beer.

You may stumble upon online hacks advocating for this technique, but Which? found that simply placing the bottle in the freezer without wet tissue yields better results.

The wet tissue approach can also be quite messy. Nevertheless, this method did manage to lower the beer's temperature by 11.6°C within 30 minutes.

The fridge's bottom shelf is typically the coldest due to the fact that cold air descends (unless there's a freezer compartment situated at the top).

Which? tested this by placing a bottle on the bottom shelf of a fridge for 30 minutes and monitoring the change in temperature. The temperature only fell by a rather disappointing 3.6°C, which is marginally better than the aforementioned air cooling method.