What is the most efficient way to carry booze on a bike tour? Ok, so the question is, how do you take liquor along on your bike tour, no one really wants to carry a twelve pack, or a six pack for that matter, very far on a bike tour, its just not practical. So what do you do, no one in there right mind should be denied a relaxing beverage after a long day in the saddle.
I have found that like all things in bike and moto touring, life is a compromise. Nothing tastes better then a cold beer after an epic day of touring, but unless you have a gas station or store stop towards the end or your day your chances of a non-foamy cold beer a slim at best. I’ve tried to carry beer with me for the whole day once, just once, we carried a 12 pack of Tecate all day in a BOB Yak, its was an awkward weight in the BOb which was a pain to haul around, but the most disappointing point was that at the end of the day the beer is warm and shaken to all hell.
But just because you cant carry beer with you or get it at the end of the day doesn’t mean you have to go without the nectar of the gods. For those of you that are more man then I, the answer is simple, whiskey. It is the drink of the frontiersman, easy to carry, you get a good bang for your buck and actually tastes good to some. So if your that sort of person then congratulations you don’t have to suffer the burden or bourbon, of adding noticeable weight to your bike with booze.
I have found the best answer for me is boxed wine, I know right, not what you were expecting, allow me to explain. If you like wine then you are good to go. If you don’t like wine then this probably wont help, so bring some liqueur, or other entertainments. Wine, in general, tastes good, and delivers a balanced fluid weight to smile ratio. Now I’m not saying by any means that great wine comes out of a box, but in recent years boxed wine has significantly improved in quality. One box of wine is the equivalent of four bottles.
Here’s the kicker, boxed wine is great for bike touring because all you need to do is remove the wine bladder from the box and you have a pre-made dromedary of wine, ready to roll. It works perfectly. At first I was seriously concerned about the integrity of these wine bladders, so the first tour I went on I made sure to protect it in my pannier. Well by the time I was three or four days in and a little bit of packing apathy had set in i didn’t really take the effort into packing the wine bladder with care. Never had a failure, even after eight days of hard off road touring the boxed wine bladders held up and have on every tour since. Every bladder that I have bought has had a double lined design, amazingly enough, so even if you have a failure of one of the layer you are still all good.
People used to give me a strange look when I told them the same thing I am telling you, but then they give it a try and realize how well it works. These days you should be able to find boxed wine in just about any major grocery store, so on your next bike tour, if you can do your self a favor and hit up a store or gas station before you camp for the night, but if you can’t and your deep in the woods, bring along a bladder or two of boxed wine, its comes in red and white now, enjoy! Oh ya, my personal favorite is the Black Box.
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