How To Keep Your Beer Cold While Camping

Summertime camping gives you the opportunity to experience the great outdoors while the weather is warm. You are able to sit out, relax in the sun, and enjoy a cold beer.

But a problem for some who are hiking or camping up into the wilderness is how to keep your beer cold while camping? 

In order to keep your beer cold while camping, you can use the following methods: a cooler, Scotsman method, bury your drinks and some other methods presented below.

Tips to Keep Beer Cold While Camping

Warm beer is not enjoyable, and to complete that picture of relaxation, you are going to want to know how beer can stay cold on a camping trip.

You can use one of these methods:

1. An Ice Box or Cooler

An icebox is the best choice for keeping beer and other drinks cold for a number of days while out camping.

If you have time to add one to your camping gear before setting out on your adventure, this will give you the best cold beer during the trip. Having two ice boxes on a trip is often the best if you are not going to have to walk a long way to your site, and have room to pack two.

With two ice boxes, you can keep your beer and other drinks in one, and in the second, you can keep meats and other foods that require cold.

One factor to keep in mind when purchasing an icebox is trying not to go for the cheaper version. A cheaper made one may work for one night of camping; however, if you are going two or more nights, you want one that will retain the cold longer.

Some iceboxes or coolers will even provide you a bottle opener for your beer and cup holders to rest that frosty bottle or another can of refreshment.

2. Scotsman Method for Keeping Beer Cold While Camping

The Scotsman method for keeping beer cold works well if it is a little breezy and crisp outside. If there is no wind or breeze, this method may not work as well.

To keep your beer cold by this method, you start with a spare T-shirt (make sure you can get through the trip without this shirt) and some water. Coldwater works best; you just want to make sure it is not warm water.

Completely submerge the T-shirt into the water and then wrap it around your beer. Place the wrapped beers in an area of your campsite that gets the most wind, or the shadiest, coolest area of the site.

A mix of the wet T-shirt and the cool temperature will lower the temperature of your beers. This method is not the same as taking a beer off a pile of ice, but definitely beats a can of warm beer.

3. Bury Your Beer to Keep It Cold While Camping

When you forget or were not able to bring a cooler along to keep beer cold at your campsite, you can bury it in a small hole in the ground. Find an area in your site that will stay dark, or in the shade all day. You do not want an area where the sun will heat the ground at any time of the day.

Bury the beer (make sure in some sort of container such as a plastic bag that won’t allow the drinking area of the bottle or can to get full of dirt) about a foot below the surface, and they should stay cool.

If there are any bushes in the area, it would be an ideal spot as the bush will protect the ground and your beer from the sun. The bush will also serve as a reminder as to where to find your beer. It will save you from stumbling around in the dark looking for the buried beer.

4. Evaporative Cooling Keeps Beer Cold While Camping

Transitioning water from liquid to gas takes a lot of energy to break the molecular bond, which holds water in its liquid form.

This transition absorbs heat from molecules and creates hot steam that will float away, and the surface where the water evaporated from is left colder. This process is actually how sweating happens.

Your beer can’t sweat, but you can mimic the process to get it colder with a little breeze on a warm summer day:

• Use a thin cloth and make it wet. Wicking fabric works the best if you have some with on the trip.
• Wrap the cloth around your beer.
• Place the can in the shade. It will dry faster in the sun, but direct sunlight will be counterproductive. 
• Wait a bit and continue to wet the cloth as it drys.
• You will achieve a cold can of beer.

You won’t have an ice-cold beer, but you also won’t have a warm beer.

5. Sink Beer in Stream or River to Keep Cold While Camping

If there is a river or small stream near your campsite, it will work well to keep your beer cold during your camping trip. Place your beer in a bag that can be submerged in water and hold together.

Add something substantial to the container to weigh it down, so it stays a few feet below the surface of the water. The deeper it goes down, the colder the water will be, and the colder it will keep your beer.

Make sure you mark your bag well so you can find it without having to walk around the water looking, especially if you will be going back for the beer after dark. Always use caution around water areas, especially if the land is rocky or uneven.

6. Snow Works Great to Keep Beer Cold While Camping

If it’s a summertime camping trip, this tip won’t work, but if it’s late enough in the year where snow is present, you have a great way to keep beer cold while camping.

Snow works well to keep or get your beer cold. This option will, of course, get it too cold if left extended time, so plan on removing the beer from the snow after about an hour.

Your best chance of keeping your beer cold while camping is to plan ahead. The icebox or cooler will be your best option and help to keep not only beer but other drinks and food items cold throughout the entire camping trip.