An ode to beer and camping.
What makes a quality camping beer? It depends on who you ask. Even I can’t decide on a favorite. I have preferred styles based on the season. Like, doesn’t a sweet caramel and toffee brown ale sound perfect in the fall? Or when the nights dip especially low, a porter sounds perfect.
But on sunnier days – juicy IPAs and the sours are perfect for the beach. I guess really the only characteristic of a camping beer that matters is that it’s canned. You don’t want to accidentally drop a glass bottle and leave a mess for mother nature.
So to embrace all things camping and the good beer that goes along with it – I picked 6 canned beers that range from rich porters to fruit-filled NEIPAs. And got drunk and wrote about them.
Founders – Solid Gold – 4.4% – Adjunct Lager
“Our take on a classic, Solid Gold is a drinkable premium lager brewed with the highest quality ingredients. Challenging what a lager can be? That’s something we won’t regret.”
The perfect “anytime” beer. We’re talking BBQs, baseball games, mowing the lawn, an after work beverage, or binging a few beers around the campfire. Solid Gold has become my favorite go-to lager. It’s perfectly balanced between crackery refreshing malts, and a very mild floral/grassy hops with hints of lemon and slight citrus. It’s literally a beer anyone and everyone can enjoy.
‘There is a hawk in me, soaring
Toward the sun.
an otter soul, lazy
in cool waters.
A heart of a fox, chasing
all of my wild manic dreams
of prairie grass and cold
nights in the heart
of the heartland and the stories that unfold
among horizons of corn, all gold.’
Mobcraft – Batshit Crazy – 5.6% – Brown Ale
“Bat$h!t Crazy is a Coffee Brown Ale. Balanced milk sugar sweetness gives way to robust coffee flavors.”
Nothing beats sitting around a campfire during a chilly fall night, downing a hearty, malty brown ale. When I think of camping, I immediately think of browns. And Batshit Crazy is a perfect example. It has hints of both coffee and toffee, balanced by a creamy milk sweetness and sweet caramel and a slight hazelnut maltiness. A perfect medium-bodied brown to keep you warm around the campfire.
‘Look up at night,
toward the stars
into the heart
toward the denim dark
See them cut
across the sky
flashes of dark
drops of blood from the heart
Look at them go
the bats of Yellowstone
still your heart
Embrace peace in the dark.’
Ale Asylum – Ambergeddon – 6.8% – Red Ale
“Ambergeddon brings the malt AND the hops, the latter seriously lacking in your garden varietals. It’s a west coast style amber, which means you get tons of hoppy goodness on a firm bed of malt.”
Like brown ales, ambers and reds are another fall staple. Ambergeddon gives you the best of a red ale, but also brings a bunch of hop flavor. It starts with a rich nutty malt background, with a sort of rich molasses, toffee flavor, that gets swept away into a rush of delicious bitterness, one of pine and resiny hops that linger long after each sip.
‘B-movies and beer in a rundown home some
time in October
watching the Terror
Karloff in the castle hunted by a baby Jack.
It wasn’t much of a moment, but it was all I had
the midnight hour, the maddening fall wind
howl
it was October
And I was fool
it was October
and my heart
murdered.’
Mobcraft – Vanilla Wafer Porter – 7.0% – Porter
“Vanilla Wafer Porter is a chocolatey Porter swirling with vanilla notes that will leave you floating in bliss, hints of smooth, malty cocoa meld perfectly for a Porter that’s outtasight!”
What about those really cold camping nights? Where the temperature dips real low, and you need your zero below mummy sleeping bag to stay warm? That’s where a solid porter comes in. Heavy, smoky, toasted malts to keep you warm under the stars.
That’s what the Vanilla Wafer Porter does, but also brings a little extra. It has a strong campfire smoky charred malt flavor, a real woodiness oakiness, but don’t worry, all that vanilla sweetness balances it out. The vanilla comes in like a sweet wave of ice cream like creaminess that makes this beer a real dessert.
‘Walking in the november cold
on an empty road
there was an early snow
and I heard each step unfold
as aimless, skyward like the smoke as it floats
toward a heavenly night
street lights
shone
down on parked cars
And that was all.’
City Lights Brewery – Hazy IPA – 7.0% – NEIPA
“Massive late additions of Citra, Mosaic, and Amarillo hops give this beer a strong tropical aroma and flavor. A simple grain bill of 2 row base malt, wheat, and flaked oats give this beer a beautiful full body; and the high protein content contributes to a pleasant haze.”
We’ve covered a lot of perfect fall camping beers. But what about summer? I mean, doesn’t it make sense to drink a beer that tastes like pine trees while camping among them? By extension of that logic, it’s probably why I like bringing warm gin along on camping trips.
But with the advent of the haze craze and juicy IPAs, it’s never been a better time to pack along a few IPAs while camping. There’s a variety of refreshing, lighter, fruit-forward styles to choose from. Or keep it old school with bitter pines.
City Light’s Hazy leans toward the former, with juicy notes of peach, pineapple, and grapefruit, and just a very mild bitterness. It finishes with a strong sweetness and hints of caramel malts.
‘She said:
I’m not ready for summer to end.
I can’t live without the sun
I’m not ready for the fun
To fade like the fall sun into longer nights
It’s not right.
To which I replied:
But don’t you worry about that.
There’s still magic in the fall,
hope and mystery adventure and it all
Belongs to us just take my hand
I’ll show you the miracles and
magnetic pull of a season
slowly dying.’
Avery – El Gose – 4.5% – Gose
“A timeless, traditional tart gose (goes-uh) with its zesty and salty disposition is brightened by a tangy citrus twist. A bier for every día!”
And now that we’re talking about summer, of course you need a solid beach beer while camping. And my go-to is a good gose. I’m sure glad we live in the golden age of goses. You can get them in any fruit flavor you can imagine, passionfruit, guava, grape, and any kind of berry.
But there’s something so perfect about the classic sea salt and lime. And El Gose captures that perfectly. Making it an ideal choice for a summer day under the sun.
‘What good is all the gold
In all the world
When you can
have such a good time
Remember in our mutual friend
Gets rich and becomes the golden dustman
Nicodemus Boffin
What good is all the gold
When you got goses,
I’d trade all my gold away
For beer and a warm beach day
We’re all dust anyway.’