Aging beer in a cave

In an effort to have quality beer while backpacking, a buddy and I are planning on hiking some homebrew into a future camp spot several months before a trip. The hopeful plan is to find a cavern or sinkhole to store the brew between spring and fall. This is a two part question/survey.

1. Since the bottles will be packed out, we need to store the beer in the lightest. most compact manner possible. I was thinking a few 2 liter soda bottles, but this might allow the CO2 to egress. Any suggestions?

2. What style do you think would fit this bill best. I want something that will benefit from 6 months of cellaring, and something that will just be badass to do.

Thanks guys!

Can't answer your first question as I've never bottled in 2L bottles. As to the second: Me, I'd go with something Belgian. A saison perhaps or a Belgian blonde. Easy drinking on a hike depending on alcohol content. Most Belgians benefit from contact with the yeast and will be ok with various temp swings. Most Belgians/trappist type ales are bottle conditioned anyway.

Barleywines, imperial stouts, any of those high grav beers that were traditionally made to store.

I dunno, I think its kinda obnoxious to go and leave some of your trash somewhere for a year until you come back and pick it up again. (you might not think of it as trash but somebody eles who finds it might) I thought the new back-packing mantra nowadays was "Leave it better than you found it"? I don't think leaving some stash of bottles in a cave/sink-hole is really living by the ethos.

Also, it seems like more work than its worth. If you are willing to make a separate trip just to hump some beer into the wilderness, why not pack it in on the actual trip? There is any number of good craft-brews packaged in cans these days. If you want to pack homebrew, then I'd suggest bottling/filling the plastic soda bottles.

Sorry to crap all over your idea, it just seems kinda silly.

Its actually going to be on private land, so trash won't be an issue. But point taken.

As for the extra effort of two trips – the plan is to take the bottles in on a day trip, when they would be the only weight we carry aside from water bottles. Then we can enjoy the beer in the fall without having the weight of the brew added to our packs full of gear. Then the only extra weight would be the empty bottles carried out. We're big on food and beverage during hikes, and this seems like a fun way to do it.

I would bottle in those aluminum beer bottles, you cant get lighter than that. For all of you who think that metal will leach off flavors, the inside of the bottle is lined in plastic.

Problems;
1) it will have to be a beer that you would drink warm, unless you have a spring to chill it in.
2) temperature fluctuations. This could be prevented by storing the beer in large rock formations or in the earth. Caves and the earth act as insulation and maintain a somewhat steady temperature.

+1 on the aluminum bottles if you can get your hands a lot of them.

I'd recommend bringing a shovel and digging a hole. Temperatures fluctuate a lot less underground and the chances of anyone else finding it and pilfering as close to zero as you can get. Just be sure to mark the area with something that will last until you get back out there.

How many people going in?
If more than 2, One person humps in a 3 gallon corny keg, paint ball CO2 and cobra tap.
The other people hump in that persons supplies, fair is fair.....

Have you thought of changing the way youre backpacking? I grew up in the mountains so i know the effort youre talking about and packs get heavy quick. But if youre not one ofthe "always moving" hikers who never actually enjoy the woods you could buy or build a foldable ultralight cart to drag along 20 pounds of beer gear. Yes it will be slower and more work but less than a second trip just for that. Theres a reason mountain men drug a mule along behind them even though mules are a pita.

Since your hiking on private land maybe this isn't an issue, but caves usually attract hikers. I'd be a bit worried of someone finding the beer and disposing of it in one way or another while your waiting for it to condition.

Don't listen to the guy that was raining on your parade. I think it's a cool idea as long as you pick up your stash and clean up after yourself. If you use metal caps watch out for rusting. I'd seal any bottle you use in a few layers of garbage bags.

This is one that I can actually speak to as a brewer and caver. First for the beer, I'm with the people before me, somehting like a mead or high grav belgain would be bad a** but as a fan of a lager you nailed the place to do it. A cave (if actual cave 10 ft deep or more) should be 52 degrees year round. It will be chill and depending when you go back the beer will be warm or cold depending upong out side temp. serisously there will be little temp fluctuation as long as you are deeper than 10 ft from the mouth of the cave unless the cave is a large mouth opening. good luck figureing out how to make the beer lighter while packing it in.

btw specialized mentioned trash bags, its absolutley advisable. it helps with clean up but caves and sink holes have a ton of cave dust and moisture plus bugs. So you will want to seal those guys up, and if you want a light weight solution to refridgerent a little dry ice goes a long way. its light and once at the point ready to drink freinds use to take a small chunk put it in a gallon ziplock with a tiny bit of water and bury it in the soft cave ground for a few minutes. -300f can cool a beer real quick.

bury a corny keg and pack in one of those taps that use c02 bulbs to charge them. putting a corny in a backpack of 50+ liters would be a snap, you can bring a folding camp shovel and just bury the whole thing in the ground inside a cave. 1 treasure map later and you are set.

we have cached supplies in the summer for extended snow trips for over 30 years in my family, it is an acceptable practice as long as you clean up after yourself... you just have to hide things well, or be accepting of the fact that you left your stuff there, and someone else may decide to utilize it.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I think I'll go with an unfiltered Belgian Strong, but I'm still on the fence as to how I'll store it. I own two 5-gallon cornies, but no 3-gallon kegs. That may have to go on the Christmas list now.

Buried is a great idea, and the treasure map thing is just geeky enough to be fun. It is all a bit unnecessary, but unnecessary projects are half the fun of brewing – for me at least.

Thanks for the ideas! You guys rock!

Soda bottles are PETE (at least some are)....it's no different than aging in a better bottle, and it's the same plastic that lines aluminum cans now. Just make sure they're wicked tight, they'll hold pressure. SO, two 2L bottles per person should do it.....+1 to garbage bags and burying your stash. Great idea, man!

If you give me the location, I can probably go out there and check up on it for ya

broadbill said:

Also, it seems like more work than its worth. If you are willing to make a separate trip just to hump some beer into the wilderness, why not pack it in on the actual trip?

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To keep weight down on the actual overnight trip? Hiking beer into a future campsite is hardly work assuming that you enjoy hiking. Which if a fair assumption if one is backpacking.

3 gallon corny and then GPS geocache that badboy, just make sure you don't share it or others will beat you back to it!