Beer transport by motorcycle: Suggestions?

Howdy all,

I dug through this forum pretty deep and didn't find anything, but if I did overlook something, I'm open to links.

In a few months I plan on visiting some friends in multiple locations which are hundreds of miles apart, and would like to bring some homebrew with. The trick is, I'll be on my motorcycle. I have side/top cases, which are actually plastic SKB cases (the top case even still has the foam in it). As such, I am trying to come up with a method that would allow a decent amount of brew to come along with, but be able to withstand some amount of vibration and temperature.

I'm completely open to filling the box with ice to keep the beverages at least somewhat temperature stable, but I'm mostly worried about how a carbonated, yeast filled bottle would react. With glass, I would expect to wrap them with bubble wrap, but I am also thinking about getting a case of those PET bottles (almost a buck a bottle, ouch) just for this.

Can anyone suggest a better method? Or anyone with experiences in doing something silly like this?

I'm sure I will not be doing any favors to the taste, but I figured if you can ship the bottles and expect them to be OK, well... maybe I could pull this off. I might try some experimentation this upcoming weekend and see how stuff survives.

Thanks for your input!

I've had commercial beer in the saddlebags but never homebrew. I would think your major concern is the vibration stirring up the yeast in the bottles....(If you could keg and use BMs beer gun you'd be obviously in much better shape....). I guess as long as you let the bottles sit as long as you can at your destination; to let most of it settle back down.....you'd be OK.....

I would suggest transporting it via your stomach

But seriously, I don't think the vibrations will do it any harm, just give it at least an hour in the fridge at your destination to cool off and let the CO2 reabsorb back into solution. PET bottles are great in this instance, as they're more robust than glass. Rather than buying some at a buck apiece, get some 2 liter bottles of soda and fill those up with beer instead.

Ship it. Of course, then you have to worry about it being gone before you get there...

I like to roll up the bottles in my sleeping bag. I take a foldable cooler along and ice them down when I get to my destination. Haven't had any break yet......

Do you keg? Would there be room for a 3-gallon keg?

HOw about 2 liter bottle with carbonator caps. I'v often thought that when I decide to take some brew on the boat I could do the 2liter soda bottle with carbonator cap, and a small co2 charger. Add a small 2 feet picnic tap. I could apply co2 to keep it carbed, when I am ready to drink, attach picnic tap, turn bottle upside down and tada I have a keg.

Ok , I havnt tried this, but I think it could work. I would have to play with pressure , and keep adding co2, but if you drink fast , you could also just pour out of the bottle.

PS. the picnic tap would have to have a gas quick disconnect on the other end, since carbonator caps are gas posts.

You know you want to:

Just so you know, it can be done:

As long as you don't put either glass bottles or cans in the rear cargo box of an ATV, go for a tear through some crazy mountain trails as fast as you can, and then expect the beer to be intact and the inside of your cargo box clean when you stop for a beer break an hour later, you'll be fine.

Don't ask me how my dumba$$ knows this...sometimes its hard to recognize stupidity before Darwin does.

the_bird said:

Do you keg? Would there be room for a 3-gallon keg?

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I don't currently keg, but I thought about it. I could make room, but I'd like to take a few different beers with, and keep it all inside the top case so I don't have issues crossing state lines

JesseRC said:

HOw about 2 liter bottle with carbonator caps. I'v often thought that when I decide to take some brew on the boat I could do the 2liter soda bottle with carbonator cap, and a small co2 charger. Add a small 2 feet picnic tap. I could apply co2 to keep it carbed, when I am ready to drink, attach picnic tap, turn bottle upside down and tada I have a keg.

Click to expand...

Not a bad idea. Maybe I should experiment with this. I assume I'd need to chill the beer to carb it, would I also need to let it sit for a while? I haven't tried kegging at all yet.

cavehamster said:

I don't currently keg, but I thought about it. I could make room, but I'd like to take a few different beers with, and keep it all inside the top case so I don't have issues crossing state lines



Not a bad idea. Maybe I should experiment with this. I assume I'd need to chill the beer to carb it, would I also need to let it sit for a while? I haven't tried kegging at all yet.

Click to expand...

You don't have to chill it to carb, you just need to look up what pressure to carb at for the temperature the beer is at. You'll of course want to chill before serving.

I've thought about this hard. I want the 3gal corny with a small paint gun co2 dispenser and put it in like a square fabric cooler on my pillion between my back and my top case. I think this setup would be pretty sweet.

I've seen others just fill their top case with ice and bottles, but you would need to keep filling up with ice.

Great thread - I'm currently thinking about taking a 3 gallon corny about 1000 miles away. I've got the corny, picnic tap, paintball CO2 adapter, etc.

The most of my concern has been with the temps over the day and a half on the road.

Here you go:

Brewiz said:

Here you go:

Click to expand...

That's pretty cute! Is that a 3 gallon?

that is sweet! i need that setup. do you just use ice in the bag? i wonder if there is a round hard cooler that the 3gal would fit into? might keep it colder longer.

i also wonder if something like this could be modified to a cooler? http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/en/product/M4500

welll it should fit in a 5 gallon round cooler.

All I had was Ice in the cooler and it lasted from Atlanta to Daytona with out adding any. I was going to make something out of a large diameter piece of PVC if I can find what I want.

you just need a bigger sidecar.



B

I bought some plastic PET bottles, we'll see how that works out.