Taking a keg camping

I am going to a festival (Telluride Bluegrass) where we will be camping for 4 days this week. I am trying to figure out how to take and dispense a keg for the event. It will be cold at night and hot during the day. I plan on using small (hand held) CO2 dispenser to serve it.

I have a jockey box i built years ago using copper coils but read it is not a good idea to pour finished beer through copper, so my jockey box is out. We will be bringing dry ice as well. Any suggestions on the easiest way to make this happen?

I just built this and I love it. Now...it requires a 3 gallon keg, but I'm sure you could figure something out along these lines. I've also seen people stack two beverage coolers and mount them together so they'll fit a 5 gallon.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-new-portable-kegerator-182045/

One big thing to look at for. Telluride is about 9,000 feet in town, higher outside of town. Altitude turns a keg into a foam machine. Under carb that bad boy, or google keg beer and altitude for better info

When I take my kegs on the road I put them in a primary bucket and pour ice around the keg then add some water...since the beer is served from the bottom it serves cold...

The bucket is wrapped in a towel.

So this might be a little out there, but add the dry ice to the keg to simultaneously cool the beer and carb to taste once you're at altitude?

Sorry if that's completely ridiculous- it's late

Not sure how much time you have and how much effort you want to put into something like this, but what I envision is something similar to suthrncomfrt had suggested, but to accomodate the larger keg, you could either cut a circular hole in the top of the cooler lid, or perhaps easier is build a lid out of insulation board and then cut the hole in that. The tap and CO2 charger would be exposed and you just slide the keg through the hole and fill the cooler with ice. Remember that the beer gets pulled from the bottom and it should be pretty easy to keep it cold for 4 days with minimal additions of ice.

Something like this is what I'm talking about, only with a bigger hole.

First off, I have no comments about the altitude. But, I brought my keg camping Memorial Day. Bought two of those large freezer bags from Walmart ($2) Each. Cut the bottom off one, and duct taped together. Covered the inside with heavy duty trash bag to prevent leaking. Put the keg in and surrounded with ice. Held the temps pretty well. Especially compared to the first night where it was just in a trash can with ice. That melted in a few hours.

This solution is great because it doesn't take up valuable space in the car.

I have used foam steak shipping boxes. I cut a hole in the lid big enough for the keg. Put the keg in the box (that foam is THICK), fill with ice, add the lid. I wrapped the exposed part in flexible foam.

For dispensing, I used a 10' line with a picnic tap. I coiled the line, and made a "poor man's jockey box", a gallon ziplock bag. The coil is placed in the bag and the bag kept full of ice. Every pour was ice cold.

Used that setup with two kegs at a family reunion. It was a HOT weekend, but the kegs stayed cold.

First off... I'm jealous you get to go to Telluride Bluegrass and I don't.

Second... I saw a site recently where someone had used one of those large buckets typically used for 1/2 bbl sankes, and a smaller diameter 24" high trash can inside it. He filled the space between with spray foam insulation. Put your corny in the trash can and surround with ice. Cheap and supposedly very effective. I plan on using this idea when I finally get around to kegging.

Now if I could only find the URL...

homebrewer_99 said:

When I take my kegs on the road I put them in a primary bucket and pour ice around the keg then add some water...since the beer is served from the bottom it serves cold...

The bucket is wrapped in a towel.

Click to expand...

+1. I think this is the easiest way with a picnic tap.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I really like Socos setup may have to build something like that soon like before my roadtrip in AUG. The cool thing is I though all my brewing projects were done, but now I got one more.

I was not thinking about the altitude but my beer is already half way there being brewed and kegged at 4300 ft. My time is limited as i am working this week which means 15 hour days. I am on reserve on Thursday which means I should not have to work and will have many hours to prepare until SWMBO gets off.

I am still wavering on bringing the keg as i will be at the show most days and the keg will have to hang out in the camping tent unless we buy that big Kodiak tent I have been eyeing. Given the time I have available I will be trying to fashion a primary bucket/dry ice contraption to serve the beer out of.

Also as many beers i have kegged (10) i just did an inventory of my bottles and I am pretty well off there as well so, whatever I come up with I will take some photos.

Dont worry about altitude. I live at 9000' and have never had any issues with carbonation up here and have been kegging for over 2 years now. Just keep doing what you are doing.

:rockin:

How cold/hot will it be? When ever I go camping or climbing in the mountains it's usually pretty cold and good enough to drink beer at-temp. I understand looking for an excuse to build something new though

homebrewer_99 said:

When I take my kegs on the road I put them in a primary bucket and pour ice around the keg then add some water...since the beer is served from the bottom it serves cold...

The bucket is wrapped in a towel.

Click to expand...

great idea. thanks. i was going to use my spare cooler, but this will save on space. taking a camping trip next weekend so the timing on the thread was perfect.

I posted this picture in an older thread that's got lots of other great ideas.
Any 10 gallon round MLT cooler can be put to additional use.

I am sure you are gone by now but.....Have fun at TBF!! I have gone the last two years and it is a BLAST!! Wish I could have made it this year....

Nope, going to miss day one. SWMBO has to work tomorrow and I am on reserve, may be done by 8 am tomorrow or may be gone till 8PM. If i do not have to work tomorrow will build a traveling keg setup. If not will have to settle for whats in bottle.

Too bad you can't make it this year. Maybe we could have a HBT camping area next year and have a beer sampling each evening. We are looking forward to it and have been for years. For us it is only a 6 hour drive, we should go every year.

I also have the need to take a keg camping in August. This got me interested to come up with something fun and unique. I'll post back once I come up with something...

beesy said:

I also have the need to take a keg camping in August. This got me interested to come up with something fun and unique. I'll post back once I come up with something...

Click to expand...

The primary bucket works great since it's only a few inches wider than a keg...

homebrewer_99 said:

The primary bucket works great since it's only a few inches wider than a keg...

Click to expand...

Touche - however mines going camping in a state park where brew is supposed to be a no no (even though we've taken beer in every time in the past - just keep it low key and all is well), so i need to find something fun, convenient, cost-effective, yet somewhat incognito. I'm thinking some sort of smaller, plastic trash can (like a kitchen one, not the large outside ones) that I can have a picnic tap sticking out the back or something. Prob would line it with foam. Who knows, I'll have to go shopping this weekend and see what I can get ideas from. Should be fun nonetheless!!

beesy said:

Touche - however mines going camping in a state park where brew is supposed to be a no no (even though we've taken beer in every time in the past - just keep it low key and all is well), so i need to find something fun, convenient, cost-effective, yet somewhat incognito. I'm thinking some sort of smaller, plastic trash can (like a kitchen one, not the large outside ones) that I can have a picnic tap sticking out the back or something. Prob would line it with foam. Who knows, I'll have to go shopping this weekend and see what I can get ideas from. Should be fun nonetheless!!

Click to expand...

I know what you mean...I place my keg in the car (on the floor of the back seat) covered with a towel and run the cobra tap out the trunk...

The problem isn't the altitude, it's the Delta of altitude. You're moving from 5,000 ft to 9,000 feet. you're going to need to push the beer with MUCH less C02 than you're used to.

homebrewer_99 said:

I know what you mean...I place my keg in the car (on the floor of the back seat) covered with a towel and run the cobra tap out the trunk...

Click to expand...

I'll let you know what I end up making. A walk-through of some local stores will get the mind in gear. I would love to have something so incognito that if a park ranger came up, he could look at it and not even know, or not know what it is and i could tell him/her it's something else.

Just got back from a float trip that I wanted to bring a keg along with on. After checking out several threads I went with the primary bucket with ice in it. I put 10ft. of bev line on it and used a picnic tap. After it sat about an hour it still foamed a little bit but after that it poured nicely. Next time I'll put some insulation around it or build something more dedicated to that, but it worked nicely in a pinch. Thanks for those suggestions.