portable kegging

hello everyone. i am going away for a long weekend soon and my contributio is then beer. i have a batch fermenting now. we will be out in the woods so a keggerator is out i have a ball lock keg ready to go and am looking for options. I have seen the keg chargers not sure how well the work and or if they are meant for the actuall pumping. debating getting a smaller tank, but that gets expensive wit co2 regulator... i saw the ball lock pumpers for the first time today, that seems like it might be the ideal solution. if anyone has any feedback on any of these options, or knows a good cheap place to find them please message me of email at [email protected]
thanks a million!!!!!!
~Joe

We take our kegs to conventions and the cartridges work great for dispensing over a three day weekend. We start with the kegs at about 10 - 12 psi (from the tank) and over the weekend just one quick squeeze on the charger when the pour gets weak keeps it going for hours. We always take a dozen or so cartridges but have never used more than two per keg over the course of the weekend.

The upside to CO2 cartridges is that it keeps plenty of pressure so if you don't drink all the keg it doesn't go bad and is drinkable for months. I believe that some of the pumps use oxygen to push the beer out. Hopefully someone in the know about pumps will chime in. Have fun on your outing!

If the co2 cartridges work that well go with them. A pump would be just like a regular sankey pump tap and would introduce regular air into the keg. Not really a problem as long as you drink it right away but if you can swing the co2 setup it I would think it would be better. Do you have to pack in the ice??

did you mean? bring ice with me? i would get that in town.

No, I was talking about having to hike into the woods with a keg and a bunch of ice, that would be dedication.

Not that dedicated That would be cool though...maybe next year, could rig up a hiking backpack with a corney mount.
~Joe

I'm camping first week of October and plan to bring my 3gal corny. Yes, the chargers with 12/16 gram cartridges work quite well. you'll need a gas disconnect with the flare fitting (not the molded in barb).

used my CO2 charger last night. 12-15 solo cups of brown ale and the first 12g bulb is still going.
force carb at home, then dispense with the little CO2 thing.

I wouldn't get the hand pump since you just oxidize the beer that way.

I went camping on Labor Day and we hiked in two five gallon cornies and a modified trash can to keep it cold. I wrapped the trash can with some of that reflective insulation (looks like shiny bubble wrap) from Lowe's and it kept the beer nice and cold for four days. We used the cartridge co2 dispensers, and ended up going through five of them (one got wasted). The hike was about 1.5 miles and wasn't too terrible. The trick is to make everyone who wants beer hike in a bag of ice. All in all, it worked out great and I think that we will do it again next year.

Get the Co2 charger. I brought one on a Colorado River trip for a week with my corny and it worked very well. I put the keg in a 5 gal. beverage cooler and packed ice around it and it was fine. Just a quick charge from time to time. 3 cartriges used.