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Curious for those that drink alcohol on backpacking trips, anyone have any good suggestions for light drinking recipes. Spiced rum and powdered cider or Everclear and KoolAid is a standard of ours. Any other suggestions?

I have a special camelbak resevoir I keep in reserve for a nice chianti or shiraz.

matt gilbert wrote:a nice chianti

Matt likes to drink the chianti to wash down the liver and Fava beans.


Pretty much the standard for me is Vodka and ......anything
lime gatorade, grape gatorade or koolaid

if it is chilly a nip of rum in some spiced cider aint too bad

my trailside fav's would be Amaretto and powdered Lemonade, or Cinnamon Shnapps with powdered Apple cider (hot). Then again with all the weight I save in my pack I have room for 3-4 beers. Yes beers! Now all we backpackers need is powdered wine. Wait a minute.. I might be onto something here...

Some years ago I saw an ad for backpackers beer. It was basically like the foil juice-pouches, only for beer. Then more recently I saw an ad for powdered beer in Mother Earth News. The powder contained both the "dry" beer and some kind of compound that carbonated the whole mix. Since seeing these articles though I have never heard or seen anything else.

By the way, if you come up with powdered wine, let me know.

A pint of absolute mandarin and a lemon works well for me. Light weight yet carries a heavy punch! :rollH:

I'm not trying to combine topics or anything! But you were the guys without guns right? :roll:

Some of us were. I don't carry a gun hiking or backpacking but I know that AK (for example) carries both his vodka and his gun.
Fortunately he only uses one at a time.

You definitely can't forget the backpacker's tea (Tequila, or Vodka and Gatorade) and crumpets (canned oysters, cheese, sausage, and crackers) on your next adventure.

It sure helps you forget the pain inflicted from a heavy pack on the trek in... well worth the effort.

matt gilbert wrote:I have a special camelbak resevoir I keep in reserve for a nice chianti or shiraz.

Matt, invest in one of those aluminum bottles and make sure it's full to the brim with your favorite vino. It fairs the trek much better. No slosh.

I think the folks that replied to this thread are all the people that I would love to go backpacking with. Matt is even classy enough to bring enough wine to share willingly.



I think my flask is the only thing I might turn around to go get if I got out on the trail and realized I forgot it.

tent? probably wont rain
stove? I can use the campfire
gloves? I'll use my extra socks
food? I remembered my creamer
Map? It's this way right?
flask? uhhhh....you go ahead, I'll catch up with ya at the campsite.

pfredricks wrote:I think the folks that replied to this thread are all the people that I would love to go backpacking with. Matt is even classy enough to bring enough wine to share willingly.



I think my flask is the only thing I might turn around to go get if I got out on the trail and realized I forgot it.

You got that right Pete...

tent? probably wont rain
stove? I can use the campfire
gloves? I'll use my extra socks
food? I remembered my creamer
Map? It's this way right?

Don't think I'd go that far...

Anytime you want to go again pete let me know. (Right now I'm really looking forward to next memorial day, Tonto Creek here I come!)

Tom, I checked into those metal containers and apparently wine causes them to corrode at a greatly accelerated rate. Besides if you fill the resevoir full enough it won't slosh anyway.

matt gilbert wrote:Tom, I checked into those metal containers and apparently wine causes them to corrode at a greatly accelerated rate. Besides if you fill the resevoir full enough it won't slosh anyway.

I'm not much of a vino drinker myself, but friends of mine rave about those bottles and how good the wine tastes opposed to a "weak bladder".

Hey, I made a funny. I crack myself up. At least I have one fan...

well Tom your friends couldn't be wrong, so maybe I'll have to give it a try anyway.

So whats the biggest sized metal container they make...

matt gilbert wrote:well Tom your friends couldn't be wrong, so maybe I'll have to give it a try anyway.

So whats the biggest sized metal container they make...

Sigg is a big manufacturer. I have a 1.5 liter jug you can test out if you want. Not real sure what the biggest bottle they make is. I don't use it for my usual elixer. Who cares if it ferments further...

Let me know.

matt gilbert wrote:Tom, I checked into those metal containers and apparently wine causes them to corrode at a greatly accelerated rate. Besides if you fill the resevoir full enough it won't slosh anyway.

As a sort of joke I hauled a 750ml Merlot to Tapeats Creek last month. Glass bottle, cork, and all. Sure it was heavy. Sure I had to haul it back out. Sure I had to re-engineer my packing sequence to fit it. But you should have seen the jaws drop when I pulled that baby out. I felt something in the presentation would have been lost if I had transferred it to another container. Sometimes living well requires a little extra effort which made the partaking all the sweeter.

If you are worried about your wine becoming too airy due to bouncing, try a 1-liter plastic Platypus container. Pop your (wine) cork just prior to hitting the trail, funnel into the container and squeeze the air out and your good to go.

The first time I used this method I put two containers into a large zip lock freezer bag for fear of leakage. Not any more, five bottles (or bags) down to Havasu Falls, no problem. Plus they are lighter to carry out...

In response to mike t's reply:

Understandable, Mike

I have seen matt's wine camelback "wineskin" bladder set up. It seemed to work well-no different than a camelbak of H2o. Speaking of which, I saw no "sloshing" problem from the Camelbak, but Matt was a different story. You wouldnt think he would sing show tunes would you?


Mike-Great story- great to see a guy who does things right!!!!!

You could absolutely bowl someone over if you brought a decanter, because you wanted to let the wine breathe a little before serving it.