I leave a case of beer in my car to load into my cooler every time I go kayaking. It’s easier than lugging it out to my car every time I go. Am I sacrificing any quality or possibly even ruining the beer?
Weird timing!
I rented a cabin on a campground this week and I spotted one of these (made by Cabrla's) by a cabin down the lane not 2 hours ago on a walk with the kids...I thought 'WTH' is that thing
Now I know👍
Looking it up now I see a 40 quart weighs 25 pounds and retails for $250 at Cabela's
Yeti brand is considerably more expensive
Worth the weight and price for real hardcore camper types
No, but it's funny you say that
I'm getting my boyo into horrors recently and I showed him Cabin In The Woods this past weekend...I don't know what I was thinking but he's been fine so far!
But if you kept the cooler in the car, then that's one less job; buy beer, place straight into cooler, arrive at destination, drink - no faffing about lugging items from your car to the fridge in the house and back again.
I doubt if it has much of an effect at all, unless you're a beer connoisseur who can detect subtleties in the same way some do with wines. If so, nothing wrong with that; beer has rightfully has had a prominent place in human society for millennia.
It seems to me that there are three things that could go wrong:
The heat could cause any germs present to proliferate. Unlikely -- the beer is probably already sterile when it's put into the cans, and even if not the alcohol would act against that sort of thing.
The ethanol might oxidize into acetic acid -- same way wine eventually turns to vinegar. But that requires oxygen, there's very little air in an unopened beer can, and the cans are airtight so no more air is getting in.
Expansion might cause the cans to break open. But the beer itself will expand with temperature by an almost infinitesimal amount. If anything were to cause that to happen it would be the air in the cans, but again there's very little of that there.
Those are the only reasons I can think of why it might happen. I've never tried and and never would -- to me, beer is not just a beverage but a holy sacrament. I have left cases of soft drinks out in a hot car for several days and not noticed any change in them. Some cans did break open once but that was in the winter when it got cold enough that the drinks froze inside the cans.
Anyway, I think you're OK as long as you don't leave it in the car for a very long period (years).
Once I did hear that after beer is chilled it should remain so, and becoming warm and having to rechill it affects the taste, at least to some degree.
Seemed to make sense at the time, but I never did verify it.
And I don't get too hung about exquisite flavor in the first place. Good ol' "premium" beer works for me.
> Once I did hear that after beer is chilled it should remain so, and becoming warm and having to rechill it affects the taste, at least to some degree.
I could see that for beer that's already been opened. The warmer it gets, the quicker the carbonation dissipates. And if it's had time to warm up then be chilled again, it's probably going to be pretty flat. But that's when it's exposed to the open air. Inside a sealed can the carbonation wouldn't be affected.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I can't think of any other reason for being warmed to affect it. And some stores keep beer in refrigerators while others have it on the shelf at room temperature. I've bought it both ways and haven't noticed any difference,.
Tbh, I suspected I might be mistaken on this topic. As you point out, a lot of beer in stores is displayed outside of refrigeration. But then, maybe it never was chilled in the first place. Are all beer trucks refrigerated, and does some of the product stay cold while other batches are allowed to become room temperature? If it was a problem I'm sure they would address it.
And I thought perhaps it went without saying we are talking about unopened beer. I'm not at all interested in opening a beer, letting it warm up then trying to chill it again before consumption. Yuck.
No. This used to be a real problem with beer. But with modern canning and bottling techniques, it's not a problem anymore. You're not gonna skunk your beer or otherwise ruin the flavor. But the old wisdom still runs rampant.
I always thought that was from sunlight breaking down the plastic and it leaching into the water. When I’m carrying cases of water in the back of my truck I always try to cover it.
Professional beer drinker here. Get a fucking cooler. If you can afford a kayak, you can afford a cooler. And it might come in handy for other things like a power outage.
Glad to discover this about you. Just something else that keeps you on my 'favorite posters' list, lol ! And I agree with your advice, btw.
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I get you there! I became addicted to frosted mugs in the summertime at the local watering hole during my construction-working days. I've been in the habit of quick-chilling a beer in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes before popping it open for many years now.
You won't catch me without a coozie in the summer, or as they're calling it nowadays, a beer insulator. Makes all the difference in keeping a drink cold.