Official Cooler ‘Ice/Beer Challenge’ (featuring soft-side Yeti Hopper)

We’re fans of beer here at GearJunkie. Particularly, that of the ice-cold variety, and for that reason we find it important that when we test a cooler it must pass the “Beer/Ice Challenge.”

It is a mostly unscientific test, but in short we leave a cooler outside and see how long it keeps our ice frozen and our beer cold. (See our similar “Cooler Ice Death Match” from last summer.)

Earlier this month, we unveiled news of a new soft-sided cooler from Yeti called the Hopper.

The company claims it can “keep ice for days,” and thus our challenge unfolded over the course of 72+ hours in the heat of a July week.

Go To Page 2 For The Breakdown On The Official Cooler ‘Ice/Beer Challenge’

We filled the Hopper up to its capacity with an 18-pound bag of ice and dropped in 18 cold cans of Hamm’s beer. Then we zipped it up, set it outside in the shade, and let the July heat do its worst.

At 5pm each day we unzipped the cooler to check on the ice and record the melting progress. Sure, this is not as often as a cooler would get opened in the real world.

But we’re not scientists, here, so take our results or leave them. Either way, we had cold beer at the end. —Amy Oberbroeckling

Go To Page 2 For The Breakdown On The Official Cooler ‘Ice/Beer Challenge’…