beer cooler

[aston]

I have a very important question.

Lets say you are camping and you have a cooler full of beer. After a few hours, some of the ice has melted and now you have beer, ice and water sloshing around in the cooler.

Do you drain off the water, or leave it in there?

The goal is to keep the beer as cold as poss for as long as poss.

[sarah]

Rick (BS - Chemical Engineering) swears by leaving the water in. I don't have a say in the matter, so I just go along with it

[Jason]

I 2nd with leave the water alone. At least until it becomes warmer than the outside elements or starts smelling.

[goodtimes]

I agree with Rick, for the same reason (even though I ain't no chemical engineer). The heat capacity of water is pretty damn high. So if you drain the cold water out, then you have removed that much capacity from the system.

[sam 15]

x3 water in......also keeps soda and other liquid beverages colder:beer: :cocktail: :tongue:

[92 Green YJ]

who takes cans? just do what we do, take 4 5 gallon kegs of home brew

[blackZZR]

i go for keeping it in
we do a week long campout every year and I have pound that by keeping the water in, the rest of the ice stays ice longer, if you drain it, the other ice melts faster.

[Dukes69]

another vote for keeping it in. We used to give freshly purchased beer an "ice bath" in the sink or something. It was just ice and water. It sure got them cold quick. :beer:

[sarah]

Scott, we're camping with YOU next time! hehehe

[Matt Pascoe]

Scott, I made a similar "jockey box" for serving my 5 gal homebrews and had problems with the copper creating green flakes in the beer. Have you had a silmilar problem with your copper lines? Or have you found a solution?

OP... Keep the water!

[92 Green YJ]

Matt, as of yet we have not had any issues resulting from the copper. Only problem we did have with the jockey box was a pinhole in one of the lines that drained a keg and killed a CO2 tank on us (hence only three tap handles in the pic)

I didn't know you brewed as well. very cool. for a tease, heres our brewing system and our 8 tap kegerator

[D4x4Fish]

My vote is leave the water in.

But if you want really cold beer add salt to the water.

The ice alone will keep the beer at 32 degrees
With the Salt added to the water The Beer will get to 23 degrees

But the ice doesnt last so long. but most of the time niether does the beer!

[goodtimes]

Another really efficient way to keep things cold, one that I have been using more and more often lately.....travel with someone who has a 12 volt fridge in their rig. I usually leave the last 6-pack for them at the end of a trip, sort of a rent payment.

[blackZZR]

Well the best thing about being a home brewer and a wheeler, is you have a large co2 tank for airing up

[92 Green YJ]

Well the best thing about being a home brewer and a wheeler, is you have a large co2 tank for airing up

why would I want to waste my Beers CO2? I have a 60 gallon air compressor in the garage and an OBA set up in the Jeep