Craft Beer in a Canoe

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Don_Coyote

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I've been going on an annual canoe trip for close to a decade now, always looking for ways to provide a better experience than pounding cans of beer (no glass allowed). Tried doing kegs one year, but too many complications to be worth it. I'm trying a metal growler this year. One of the problems we saw with the kegs was drinking vessels- cheap plastic cups suck to drink out of, plus lead to inevitable spillage (really bad as we ran out of beer that year). I brought a stein, which shattered when struck by a frisbee, producing shards that violated the spirit of the no glass law if not the letter. But i really liked the stein design, lid to keep bugs and sand out as well as limit spills from boat rocking, plus fully removable to appreciate aroma of the beer. I've tried a few plastic camping sippy-cups and they are worse than drinking from a can, unless you pull off the lid entirely each gulp. Has anyone ever seen something that functions as a stein in a shatter-free material, maybe a polycarbonate replica or a travel mug with a similar functioning lid? I search the web every now and then, but maybe i'm not thinking of the right search terms...
 
Yes, i did the 1 and 2 liter bottles last year for homebrew, but the trick would be something with a wide opening to drink from and an easily operable lid to keep beer in and crap out when setting down to paddle.

The 32oz Stanley grumbler looks like a decent candidate, but can't tell exactly how big the mouth is from stock pictures. Not the most convenient lid, but it would almost qualify for ein mass...
 
I'm sorry, I couldn't past the first line...canoe trip, need better experience that pounding beer out of a can....huh?...what? What is wrong with pounding beer out of can? Isn't that why you go on a canoe trip in the first place? A canoe is the only way to move large amounts of beer through the remote wilderness!

Then I thought were on the right track with the kegs, but then you tenderfoots decided plastic cups weren't acceptable....tell me, did your monocles get wet when the water got a little rough and splish-splashed up on you? Hopefully the table-cloth also didn't get wet. Sorry, couldn't resist poking a little fun...:)

Beer in a can were MADE for canoe trips...a more perfect union has not been known to man since pork and bean (which also comes in a can).

Stick with beer in cans. We live in a time where some of the best beer are found in cans. Go with SS Growlers if you gotta be that guy that makes all of his buddies drink his homebrew. You should go with kegs if you want to be awesome. Leave the steins on your mantle.

Happy Friday!
 
We do an annual canoe trip and pack in kegs with ice and a Jockey box. Keep the keg insulated and out of the sun and the ice lasts for days. I use a plastic Nalgene to drink from. Lightweight, shatterproof, large opening yet seals tight.
 
WI_Wino said:
We do an annual canoe trip and pack in kegs with ice and a Jockey box. Keep the keg insulated and out of the sun and the ice lasts for days. I use a plastic Nalgene to drink from. Lightweight, shatterproof, large opening yet seals tight.
Click to expand...
I did kegs one year because 'they said it couldn't be done'. Dry ice in a keg bucket and those mini CO2 cartridges were more than what was needed for a 2 night camping trip. The problem was being in a group with consumer zombies that can't monitor their situation without prepackaged cans to guide them- a few people became too toasted to paddle their canoes the first day and we were out of beer by the time we set up camp that night.
 
Having beer around plastic is like smoking marijuana around cities- recipe for a crappy experience (which BTW is the Actual reason for canoe trips). If aluminum cans were metal drinking vessels, they'd be ok, but they are shells for plastic liners. Until the Anti-pope succeeds in fulfilling my request to have BPA added to the Bavarian Purity Law, i'm not allowed to enjoy canned beer. (I also prefer beer made with magic sticks). Plus, it's 2016, why can't somebody design a travel cup that adds the aroma of what you are drinking? Of course, if all these subtleties escape your senses, why not just jump on the river with a case of Bud Light, Hamms, or Colt 45...?
 
Don_Coyote said:
Of course, if all these subtleties escape your senses, why not just jump on the river with a case of Bud Light, Hamms, or Colt 45...?
Click to expand...

At home, I've got my fridge set to just the right temperature, and I've got all kinds of clean glasses to choose from. I usually have enough beer variety on-hand that it is extremely rare for me to ever drink 2 of the same beers back to back. From the standpoint of pure beer drinking experience, it's awesome.

I've tried multiple times now and I just can't seem to bring that craft/homebrew magic to the campground with me. The beers still taste good, but something is always missing. I'm at a point where I feel like I should just save the good stuff for when conditions are such that every nuance of the beer is highlighted and appreciated.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to bring Bud Light on a camping trip, but I'm on board with the general concept of bringing a basic light-colored, low-ABV beer in quantity (rather than a bunch of widely-varying singles like I would enjoy at home), and just drink it out of the container it comes in.
 
160412335_igloo-1-one-gallon-water-cooler-w-pour-drinking-spout-.jpg
 
broadbill said:
I'm sorry, I couldn't past the first line...canoe trip, need better experience that pounding beer out of a can....huh?...what? What is wrong with pounding beer out of can? Isn't that why you go on a canoe trip in the first place? A canoe is the only way to move large amounts of beer through the remote wilderness!

Then I thought were on the right track with the kegs, but then you tenderfoots decided plastic cups weren't acceptable....tell me, did your monocles get wet when the water got a little rough and splish-splashed up on you? Hopefully the table-cloth also didn't get wet. Sorry, couldn't resist poking a little fun...:)

Beer in a can were MADE for canoe trips...a more perfect union has not been known to man since pork and bean (which also comes in a can).

Stick with beer in cans. We live in a time where some of the best beer are found in cans. Go with SS Growlers if you gotta be that guy that makes all of his buddies drink his homebrew. You should go with kegs if you want to be awesome. Leave the steins on your mantle.

Happy Friday!
Click to expand...


As a fellow canoe and canned beer enthusiast I thoroughly enjoyed this post.



To the OP, insulated growlers are nice because they don't need to be on ice so they take up less cooler space, and they're steel so they won't break.
 
Don_Coyote said:
Having beer around plastic is like smoking marijuana around cities- recipe for a crappy experience (which BTW is the Actual reason for canoe trips). If aluminum cans were metal drinking vessels, they'd be ok, but they are shells for plastic liners. Until the Anti-pope succeeds in fulfilling my request to have BPA added to the Bavarian Purity Law, i'm not allowed to enjoy canned beer. (I also prefer beer made with magic sticks). Plus, it's 2016, why can't somebody design a travel cup that adds the aroma of what you are drinking? Of course, if all these subtleties escape your senses, why not just jump on the river with a case of Bud Light, Hamms, or Colt 45...?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you would rather be drinking beer than canoeing. Pick one and enjoy it to it's fullest.
 
WI_Wino said:
Sounds like you would rather be drinking beer than canoeing. Pick one and enjoy it to it's fullest.
Click to expand...
Guess i'm just not willing to embrace that level of narcissism.

Thanks to those that have provided helpful input to the original question.
 
Don_Coyote said:
I did kegs one year because 'they said it couldn't be done'. Dry ice in a keg bucket and those mini CO2 cartridges were more than what was needed for a 2 night camping trip. The problem was being in a group with consumer zombies that can't monitor their situation without prepackaged cans to guide them- a few people became too toasted to paddle their canoes the first day and we were out of beer by the time we set up camp that night.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you need better friends.
 
mattdee1 said:
At home, I've got my fridge set to just the right temperature, and I've got all kinds of clean glasses to choose from. I usually have enough beer variety on-hand that it is extremely rare for me to ever drink 2 of the same beers back to back. From the standpoint of pure beer drinking experience, it's awesome.

I've tried multiple times now and I just can't seem to bring that craft/homebrew magic to the campground with me. The beers still taste good, but something is always missing. I'm at a point where I feel like I should just save the good stuff for when conditions are such that every nuance of the beer is highlighted and appreciated.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to bring Bud Light on a camping trip, but I'm on board with the general concept of bringing a basic light-colored, low-ABV beer in quantity (rather than a bunch of widely-varying singles like I would enjoy at home), and just drink it out of the container it comes in.
Click to expand...

I'm the same way. Canoe trips, camp, things like that is what a decent canned beer is made for. I couldn't "waste" my home brew in situations where mass amounts of beer is going to be consumed.
 
Why drink crap beer just to have something alcoholic to pour in your gullet? If i'm in something resembling a wilderness environment that's what i'm doing, not drinking beer.

broadbill said:
Sounds like you need better friends.
Click to expand...
It's a social situation with a larger, open-ended group. If there is a one-time, low-cost and effortless way to improve my personal experience, i'd like to do it and focus more on the interaction part from there. I'll probably order the Stanley grumbler, looks like a fair improvement over anything else.
 
I do BWCA (Minnesota thing) with my RTIC 30oz tumbler all the time, keeps the beer cold all day long. We just "can" the beer in 22oz soda bottles and throw them in the cooler with ice. They all come back with us (footprints are the only thing left) to use again.

P.S. They are 1/2 the price of YETI, fit in a cup holder and they also have bottles...

bottles-hero.jpg
 
I personalty would not go the growler route...I like my beer carbonated and after a few days bouncing around in a growler that's the end of carbonation.
So whats wrong with 16oz Pet Bottles? Seems to solve all the problems.. And its just as easy to screw a cap back on paddling as it is to flip a lid shut on some fancy cup IMO. Will also not go flat no mater how much its tossed around unopened.

But I agree with cans.... I vote 4 cases per week per canoe and call it a day. The more you drink the better the social experience anyway.
 
+1 on Hydroflask. All my growlers and growlettes are hydroflasks and they make pint glasses too. The lip on the pints are very nice. Bought a couple as my standard bar pints because I liked them so much.
 
Stillraining said:
I personalty would not go the growler route...I like my beer carbonated and after a few days bouncing around in a growler that's the end of carbonation.
So whats wrong with 16oz Pet Bottles? Seems to solve all the problems.. And its just as easy to screw a cap back on paddling as it is to flip a lid shut on some fancy cup IMO. Will also not go flat no mater how much its tossed around unopened.
Click to expand...
What keeps carbonation in suspension in a PET bottle that wouldn't work in a properly filled growler?

There is a HUGE difference between utilizing a flip lid and keeping track of a little plastic screw cap while paddling a canoe...
 
Darn, only available from Disneyland restaurants in the spring of '15. Maybe they will produce a second edition in the shape of Jar Jar Bink's skull...
 
In Arkansas, all beverages in canoes, kayaks, etc. must be held inside a floating beverage container to prevent them from sinking if dropped in the water. That's the law. The most common of these floating beverage containers, we know as coozies. They will hold a can or a bottle of water.

Might want to check your state laws as the elusive wide mouth, plastic drinking vessel with a flip top lid you seek could very well be just as illegal as a glass bottle.

That said, here's another vote for cans. There are many fine craft brews readily available in cans. Nothing says it has to be keystone light or Busch. How is wrestling a stainless growler out of a cooler and pouring it into some sort of bulky vessel that you can't even hold between your legs more enjoyable than just grabbing a can, popping the top, and getting back to paddling?
 
Last edited:
Don_Coyote said:
What keeps carbonation in suspension in a PET bottle that wouldn't work in a properly filled growler?

There is a HUGE difference between utilizing a flip lid and keeping track of a little plastic screw cap while paddling a canoe...
Click to expand...

Well being a X white water rafter I will agree to disagree with you on that. And if I loose one bottel overboard so want..If you loose your sippy cup now what are you going to do?

Also you open a 12 or 16 oz pet bottle with the intent on killing it just as you would a can...I doubt your killing a growler when you open it anytime soon. That's the difference.
Carry on.
 
broadbill said:
whats wrong with status quo? Not everything has to be a build-from-the-ground-up, throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater type decision...
Click to expand...
If you had bothered to read the thread instead of jumping in and pissing on it, you might pick up on the original point of looking for a way to adapt the centuries-old concept of getting the aroma off the beer you are drinking to the conditions of a relaxed canoe trip.
 
Don_Coyote said:
If you had bothered to read the thread instead of jumping in and pissing on it, you might pick up on the original point of looking for a way to adapt the centuries-old concept of getting the aroma off the beer you are drinking to the conditions of a relaxed canoe trip.
Click to expand...

centuries old concept? Got a source for that?;)

Lighten up Francis-you must be ball of laughs on the river.
 

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