Beer on tap when camping

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reckless

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Just thought i would share this.

Last year my dad and myself did quite a bit of prospecting in outback WA. We were usually away for a minimum of 2 weeks just relying on solar to charge the metal detectors and keep the beer cold. Well, we came up with this idea, keeping the beer cold and leaving room for the other produce we would require on our trips to keep us going.

We would usually take 3 kegs sometimes 4, a tiny engel with the frozen meat in it and the 35l waeco with the repurposed automatic transmission cooler and the veg. Transferring the meat over to the waeco as we were going.

As for the beer it was cold :beerbang: it was a bit hard to get it to pour right with those silly little co2 cartridges but we managed. A better tap probably would have helped but we were on a tight budget. Hey and guess what we found gold!!

Hey and i should ask what setups have you guys run when camping??

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Isn't that "plate chiller" full of lead?

You'd be much better served putting that gold (how much didvyou strike BTW?) to use and buying a stainless steel plate chiller.
 
Transmission coolers are made of 100% aluminium these days and would be no different than what was used in the older style jockey boxes.
 
Yob said:
Isn't that "plate chiller" full of lead?

You'd be much better served putting that gold (how much didvyou strike BTW?) to use and buying a stainless steel plate chiller.
Nar its aluminium pressed and folded plates. like i said on a budget.
 
I just take a 50ltr bin I got from bunnings... Perfect fit for a corny keg... Plus picnic tap.. Back up kegs in large esky..

Might invest in a soda stream bottle plus adapter in future as the 5lb co2 is a bit of a prick to take with..
 
This was posted on our local facebook brew page...
ain't she beautiful!!

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That's been posted here before, think it's one of our AHB members. One power ball :huh:
 
I have 2 set ups I have used camping/travelling away from home base.

1st set up is a 60L red wheelie bin (red makes the ice last longer) with a hole in the lid that the top of the corny pops through. I have also insulated it with a polystyrene broccoli box and expanding foam. Tap and shank through the front with line coiled around the keg and sitting in ice.

2nd set up is a 70L (I think) poly cooler (also red for ice retention) that stands on its end with the gas in and beer out lines running through the drilled out bung to a pluto gun.

Ice lasts longer in the 2nd set up and it is a good height but was probably 4+ times the price of my wheelie bin set up.
 
I made this up for Easter.

I use the squat 23 litre kegs and the lid goes back on.
It also fits the 10 litre corny keg or the 19 litre with the lid off.

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2x 9L cornies with bronco taps in a 100L esky. Connect soda stream gas as required when pouring rate slows.

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  • Old fermenters are great for putting cornies in, only use the wide mouth fermenters. Use a hole saw to cut a couple of large holes in the shoulder to drop ice into. As mentioned, use a Sodastream CO2 cylinder to pressurize and dispense. Cheapo way out but works.
 
So Few good setup's there. Only one crazy awesome rig i can see that is not ice dependent posted by nvs-brew's.

After yob mentioned it a plate chiller would probably work alright :huh: perhaps sit it in a little water bath in the bottom of the fridge then plumb it up as a dual pass. Might be a good option for all you blokes that already have a plate chiller. I found that the most important thing is the exchanger just had to have the volume of one beer parked in it for a couple of minutes before pouring.
 
Once you solve the problem, and when you next go camping, post the dates and the coordinates of the campsite, so that some of us can conduct an evaluation.
 
yankinoz said:
Once you solve the problem, and when you next go camping, post the dates and the coordinates of the campsite, so that some of us can conduct an evaluation.
Huh yea right! of course i will.

This is after one of our better days, the beer tasted good that day.

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Let me know and me and the old man can come with you next time.

Just bought myself a GPX 5000. Now to find some gold with it :p
 
mate of mine ran a cold plate in the bottom of his engel. plates really like a water bath though. his particular plate needed a solid 5 mins to recover after pouring a beer.
 
Been working on this for a little while now. Used it once, a couple of months ago and lost half a keg because I didn't realise one of the connections wasn't in properly.
Fits a 19 litre keg and enough ice for a day or so.

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