Pat’s Backcountry Beer…

[Mike W]

I saw this gadget mentioned a while back and now that I have gotten my hands on a kit, I thought I'd put up the details of the weight penalty involved in taking a brew into the wilds. I'll leave it to you to decide if it's worth carrying and maybe some innovation can cut the weight. As for the beer… depends on your taste. I'll take it along.

The beer making process is incredibly simple. For some reason, the company's video makes it seem complicated. To put it in perspective, I found making the beer easier than Steripening my water. Takes all of three minutes (and one of those minutes is just waiting).

Weight Breakdown:
Carbonator Bottle (complete) – 9.0 oz.
Beer mix – 2.0 oz.
Activator packet – 0.5 oz.

If you want to pull things apart (see picture below):
Stripped down bottle – 3.9 oz.
Cup for bottom of bottle – 1.0 oz.
Activator Chamber – 1.4 oz.
Bottle Lid – 2.7 oz.

Carbonator Bottle, beer mix and activator packet.

Disassembled Bottle.

[Dylan Atkinson]

Nevermind the weight! How does it taste?

[Jonathon Self]

I'm really curious how it tastes, too.

And I think it need not be stated the importance of finding cool (or hopefully cold) water.

Warm beer might be a bit too much for me.

[Mercutio Stencil]

I was given a few samples of the first batch of beer concentrate, and while the process is technically interesting, the product just didn't taste all that good. It was identifiably beer, but about the level of your friends first home brew. Of course it's entirely possible that the quality of the recipe has improved with time.

[Mike W]

I'm not an expert on beer and everybody will have a different opinion regarding the taste. Here's a review by a third party that claims to know his beers and I would agree with his review.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-gear/gear-shed/covet/Pats-Backcountry-Beer.html

I also agree that cold water is the key. I was using water that wasn't particularly cold and that definitely left me wishing I had glacier water handy. Still not bad IMO.

I'm also going to test a batch in a Nalgene bottle. I'm not convince that the fancy (heavy) bottle is necessary.

[Stephen Barber]

I haven't actually tried this while hiking yet – the carbonator bottle seems a mite heavy just to make bubbles – but the beers taste good, very much like real beer.

I have tried the carbonator bottle four times now. Twice with soft drink flavors, and twice with beer flavors. I have yet to get a beverage that is actually carbonated, and I am following the directions closely, as in run video, pause to do step, run video, pause….

Cold water is a must, but so far, since I have yet to see real carbonation in the beverage, I'd have to say it would be just as good, and much lighter, to simply use your regular bottle and cold stream water to make a non-carbonated beverage that to carry an extra heavy bottle.

Has anyone tried it and gotten good carbonation? How did you achieve it?

[Mike W]

>> Has anyone tried it and gotten good carbonation? <<

I haven't had any trouble with the carbonation although I would prefer more fizz, however, I don't think you can expect it to match bottle beverages. If you are having problems, maybe it's your activator (could be old?).

[Mike W]

This is BPL, so I had to try lightening the weight of the Back-country Beer maker.

I took an empty Coke bottle (figured it would hold up best against the pressure from the carbonation process) and put the Activator powder into a tea bag that is used for loose tea.

I filled the bottle with water (16 fl ounces) and beer concentrate, poured the activator powder into the tea bag and then rolled the tea bag (with activator) into a long narrow bundle and slipped it into the neck of the bottle. I left a bit of the tea bag hanging out the top of the bottle and trapped it with the cap so it wouldn't fall all the way into the bottle.

Then I just inverted the bottle and the carbonation process began! I actually think the carbonation process worked better in the tea bag than it did in the activator cap that came with the kit.

The beer I made was my first test of the IPA and it was surprisingly good. There may have been a bit more sediment using the tea bag and Coke bottle method instead of the Kit bottle but since I haven't actually brewed an IPA in the kit bottle, I'm not sure what is normal. Really doesn't matter because the sediment was minor and the weight saving using the Coke bottle was huge!

So for comparison: Kit bottle = 9 oz.

Coke bottle (710 ml) – 1 oz
Tea bag (for stash tea) – negligible

The 710 ml Coke bottle is a bit big. I think the 591 ml Coke bottle size would be perfect (and lighter).

So my light weight kit for brewing beer in the back-country is:

Coke Bottle – 1 oz. (or less for 591 ml bottle)
Tea bag – negligible
Beer concentrate – 2 oz.
Activator powder – .5 oz.

Not Bad!!

[John Finney]

I like your approach quite much. Where did you acquire the tea bags made for loose tea? I don't recall having seen those before.

Also, if Bud Light is a 0, and your favorite American IPA (e.g. Racer 5, Stone, Dogfish Head, Bell't Two Hearted Ale) is a 10, how do you rank the instant IPA?

Thanks!

[BlackHatGuy]

I assume this would work with, say, a widemouth water bottle of the type I usually carry?

[Mike W]

>> if Bud Light is a 0, and your favorite American IPA (e.g. Racer 5, Stone, Dogfish Head, Bell't Two Hearted Ale) is a 10, how do you rank the instant IPA? <<

I'm just trying to figure out a light weight option for beer in the back-country. As far as I'm concerned, if I can get beer in my water bottle for only a 2.5 oz penalty, then I don't really care if it tastes like the top of the line brew. I'm OK with the taste and that's all I care about (along with the weight penalty). Maybe you can write the review on how it compares to other top line beers.

[Mike W]

>> I assume this would work with, say, a widemouth water bottle of the type I usually carry? <<

That was going to be my next test because I also carry a wide mouth bottle for my Steripen. I thought I'd give it a try because I'd rather not have to change bottles.

Here's my Nalgene beer making kit. I usually carry a 500 ml wide mouth Nalgene but it was too small so I had to use the larger bottle. I think it was a bit large, and a 750 ml bottle would be better.

I've added the tea bag into the photo. We actually had these loose tea bag things at work so I took a couple for my beer making tests. A woman in my office sells them as a side business, so if you have trouble finding them, let me know and I'll pass on a link to her website.

In this test, I double bagged the activator (used two tea bags) to see it would remove more sediment. I think it was a bad idea because I believe it reduced the carbonation a bit. I'd definitely only use one bag next time. There wasn't any sediment with the Pale Ale.

I also tied the top of the tea bag with dental floss (I always have some with me for field repair as well as dental hygiene, so it now has another use. The thread actually made the Nalgene leak a bit until I really tightened the cap. Maybe just trapping the top of the teabag in the lid was a better idea.

I should also mention that if you decide to make this stuff in anything but the original beer making bottle, do so at your own risk. The original bottle is made for the additional pressure of the carbonation process, other bottles could burst and cause injury.

Here's my kit:

Here's the preparation:

Here's the brewing process:

Enjoy (it's almost worth carrying the beer glass into the back-country to make your friends and other campers jealous!)

[Michael Gunderloy]

Well if you really want to…there are Tritan beer glasses.

Amazon also carries the loose tea bags.

[John Mendez]

Thanks for all the great feedback and guidance. Does anyone know where to purchase the beer syrup packets? I planned to order online, but the shipping charges are too expensive for my taste. (Nearly $20 for shipping this product to Maryland) Also, I've called around to a few local homebrew supply stores and they don't carry the beer syrup packets.

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