Transporting Beer

[Will333]

I want to take some beer on holiday (long car journey).

Are bottles the best thing to transport the beer in? Would they need a long settling time?

[Kev888]

It perhaps depends on what its in at the moment, but I keg mine so when I take beer away for short trips I tend to decant/rack bright beer to something else for transport; I may lose a little carbonation during the transfer but theres then nothing to stir up during the trip so no waiting at the other end.

Bottles are OK but are fairly heavy and bulky (especially if there is already loads of other travel stuff in the car), and its a bit fiddly bottling carbonated beer due to the foamy head. 2L pet bottles are a reasonable compromise IMO. For longer holidays or parties that require more beer I tend to use bag-in-boxes - though they aren't much good with well carbonated beer (they can swell alarmingly on the journey and need to be vented periodically!).

Cheers
Kev

[sparky Paul]

I think there was a similar thread not long ago, my theory was to bottle into 2L PET bottles and take those. I think, so long as it's a steady run and you don't drive like a nutcase, it's not as big a problem as you might think.

I took a load of assorted beer filled 2L PET bottles on holiday last year, 550 miles in the car and two ferry rides. All were primed & carbonated in the bottle, so had sediment. Some were fine to drink on arrival, and the rest were clear after a day or two. You just need to take a 2L plastic jug to decant into, pour the whole bottle in one go and leave the sediment in the PET bottle.

Ah, here's the other thread.

[Fil]

if the container has sediment then it could take a week or more in the cool for it to settle n clear, especially if a long warm shakey journey.. So perhaps consider carrying sediment free bottles

bottling without sediment from a keg with a counterpressure filler or pegas tap would provide the longest shelf life, but requires a keg setup and a bit of an investment. and then u could just take the keg

flushing bottles with co2 before filled from a pb with a dip tube on the tap spout would be the next best thing,
the tyre valve cap and cyclists co2 tyre filler can be used to add back condition with pet bottles..

you may get away with it if u keep the bottles very cold as that should encourage em to drop anything back quicker? but i wouldnt expect anything for at least 3-4days other than yeast soup to sup, and i think thats being very optimistic..

[Kev888]

Yeah, I must admit that I don't put much effort into preserving shelf life in this sort of situation as I tend to only go away for a week or so - I guess if its a longer holiday it could well be worth it.

Cheers
Kev

[Donald]

I reckon within a day or two of arriving a pressure barrel will have settled out, no matter the shaking enroute.
So it depends if you are staying around in the same place or not?