Best Practices for Camping with Homebrew

[MikeB]

You could rent or borrow a jockey box. My homebrew club has one that we loan out for just such occasions. If you can't find a jockey box then just put your kegs in a cooler (probably two/cooler) and pack ice around them. While the whole keg won't be submerged this usually keeps most of the beer cold. All you need to do then is attach a couple of picnic taps and your CO2 tank - 5 lb tank is plenty as others have said. The little CO2 cartridges are a nice back up plan.

[whoateallthepies]

Something else that should go without saying: don't take glasses. I picked up 24 x clear polycarbonate beer mugs from a catering shop for 50c each. Much safer than having a bunch of drunken dads drinking out of glassware. Pewter mugs also work, but they sink when you drop them in the lake.

[DrYeast]

just put your kegs in a cooler (probably two/cooler) and pack ice around them.

This is what I've done several times. I have a cooler that can hold two kegs upright next to each other and ran a manifold CO2 system and taps. The kegs draw from the bottom, so as long as they are sitting in cold ice/water (I'm guessing around the bottom 9 inches), the serve will be cold. I packed ice around them and then packed bubble wrap over the ice as insulation. It lasted for a weekend and the beer was always cold. Tap adapters are classier, but picnic taps are less complicated and work great (also, people at cookouts/campouts are more comfortable with the picnic taps), so you get less complaints about foamy beer.

[Tom from Raleigh]

I took two mostly full kegs and came home with about 1 gallon left of my Janet's clone. We had 12 or so adults and 35 kids. I used a 5# tank and had a small CO2 cartridge based charger as a backup. Everything worked fine. I hadn't considered that the first pint or two would be cloudy due to yeast, so next time I'd use a shorter dip tube in the keg.

All in all, it worked well. Thanks for the input, BNArmy