I understood that it would indeed freeze completely - it would just have a different crystalline structure than regular ice that freezes at room temperature. Some of the molecular configurations result in higher density than liquid water, so it would actually contract rather than expand in those instances.

You can try this at home with a bottle of beer. Put it in the freezer, forget about it (happens to me all the time) and open it. It freezes instantly.

This has to do with dissolved gasses which escape on opening changing the freezing point, not the inability of water to destroy an aluminum can. Freezing water fractures solid rock, creates pot holes in roads, and has no problem breaking a thin aluminum shell.

Interesting, thanks. That won't stop me from putting beer in the freezer though.

Gp ahead, just don't do it with beer bottles. It takes quite an effort to remove all the little shards of broken glass and the fridge smells like beer :)

I've never had that happen, but wouldn't the cap come off first?

Apparently not; I've had a bottle of soda 'sploding in my freezer. I'm guessing that since the bottle's neck is so slim the water there freezes first, effectively "plugging" the bottle.

I think that is right, since the freezing points / boiling points are also influenced by pressure. So when it tries to expand and cannot expand due to an unbreakable container, the pressure increasing substantially, and the respective points also change.

I'm sure if you try to boil water to steam, and keep it in a container that cannot expand, it won't convert completely to steam, since pressure increases its boiling point. With the conversion to ice, I am not exactly sure (something similar happens possibly) just because it is a little atypical in terms of volumes and liquid / solid states. Also, too tired to look this up :)

If you keep increasing the temperature it will eventually all turn to steam, at an extremely high pressure.