Concentrated Beer & Carbonator

Like most people, the frequency of my hiking and camping excursions would increase exponentially if only I could incorporate more carbonation into the endeavors. What's that you say? Come September 2012 Pat's Backcountry Beverages will release both pouches of concentrated beer and sodie pop, and a specially engineered vessel in which to carbonate them? And it will be "the most environmentally, socially, and sustainably responsible carbonated beverage system on earth"? Well holey carotid artery after a run-in with a vampire! Sign me up for a German Pilsner and the next flight to Machu Picchu!

The Backcountry Beverage carbonator looks--and functions, if you want it to--like a standard water bottle. However, it also comes with a magic little nugget called the Reaction Cup, which, when filled with a propriety blend of unstable ionic ingredients the company promises won't kill you, has the power to 'roid out the liquid below it with the crisp, nose-tingling, burp-enhancing pleasures of carbonation. Check out the video above to see the reaction in action.

Take Pat's carbonator to the next echelon of Yippee ki yay with the concentrated beverage pioneer's beer and soda pouches. We are assured the forthcoming foamy miracle is not a packet of dehydrated beer, but a potent beer concentrate ready to unleash all of the hoppy flavor, aromas and, most importantly, alcohol content of high-end craft brews. While other concentrate processes might involve making the beer, and then removing its water to achieve the reduced form, Pat's method begins with nearly no water at all, and uses a tightly controlled fermentation environment to produce an end result that is only discernible from a standard bottle o' microbrew by virtue of not adding 30 pounds to your pack weight. Imagine combining pouch after space-conserving pouch of beer with pint after pint of fresh spring water, shaking it into carbonated form, and then drinking a brew that, at the end of a tortuous 10-mile trek--a trek that included the realization at mile 4 that you had too many cups of coffee before leaving and forgot to bring toilet paper, and the feeling at mile 8 that you were maybe going to pass out from exhaustion, only to have a senior citizens' mountaineering club breeze past with nary a heavy breath--is just as delicious as the 12-pack of Bud Light Lime you usually schlep along.

Pat's Backcountry Beverages will also release concentrated pouches of sodas, whose flavors have already been announced. They include: Lemon Clime; Poma Granite; Terra Cola; Bear Foot Root Beer; and Ginger Trail. Well, they got clever puns right--here's hoping the drinks taste good too.