Flask Question

[John in Covina]

While I haven't been to the type of liquor store that carries these in a while, in the past many major brands of liquor had pint bottles were already hip flask shaped.

For Small Town, rural and backwoods America it was considered to be the first major accessory to bib overalls.

 

[conrad5157]

While I haven't been to the type of liquor store that carries these in a while, in the past many major brands of liquor had pint bottles were already hip flask shaped.

I hear you. I have a few stainless flasks but my favorite is my 200ml Tanqueray bottle, labels removed. The green glass looks nice and a little less conspicuous than stainless. Plus if you break it, the worst that can happen is you have to buy another 200ml of Tanqueray.

 

[Tomasso]

The problem with glass lies in its fragility. I've had it covered with leather and metal, but both broke when dropped.[huh]

And, you will drop your flask; that's understood.

 

[CigarMan]

I hear you. I have a few stainless flasks but my favorite is my 200ml Tanqueray bottle, labels removed. The green glass looks nice and a little less conspicuous than stainless. Plus if you break it, the worst that can happen is you have to buy another 200ml of Tanqueray.

I love Tanqueray, but never paid much attention to the smaller bottles, I'll have to keep my eye out for them as that would defintely made a nice Tanqueray flask.

 

[celtic]

I hear you. I have a few stainless flasks but my favorite is my 200ml Tanqueray bottle, labels removed. The green glass looks nice and a little less conspicuous than stainless. Plus if you break it, the worst that can happen is you have to buy another 200ml of Tanqueray.

even better are those brown plastic 'medicine' bottles.

 

[de Stokesay]

I just found an antique flask while off visiting the inlaws over Christmas. It is glass with a silver bayonet cap and a removable silver cup covering the bottom half. The top half of the flask is covered with leather. If you look online, you will find several of these antique flasks that are still servicable. The glass on mine is about a quarter of an inch thick, which is why it has never been broken before. No doubt, it it was dropped on concrete, from a height, it would break, but how would a full silver or stainless steel flask fare in a similar situation? My guess is not well.

With the silver cup covering the bottom half of the flask, and the leather covering on the top half, combined with the extreme thickness of the glass, there is no doubt that it would hold up much better than the very thin liner in an old-fashioned thermos.

Also, any contents I put in this flask will not react with the glass, and the transparency ensures that if is free of crud and clean inside. This is important, being very old and of uncertain providence.

de Stokesay

 

[Methuselah]

I just found an antique flask while off visiting the inlaws over Christmas.

Could you post pictures please? It sounds like a fun project to make one. Thanks.

 

[de Stokesay]

I would love to post pictures but unfortunately my camera has disappeared somewhere inside our house. I assume it was sucked into the same vortex that pinches my odd socks. When it shows up, and I have no doubt that it will someday, and when I have time I will try to do just that.

In the meantime, however, if you do a Google search for Victorian glass and leather flask, you will find all sorts of pictures of flasks just like mine. It has the silver cup on the bottom, the leather cap on top, and has one hole about 1/4 inch wide and about 1 inch high cut in the leather on each side so you can see how full it is without removing the cup.

de Stokesay

 

[Mike in Seattle]

The problem with glass lies in its fragility. I've had it covered with leather and metal, but both broke when dropped.

As well as larger bulk and heavier weight.

 

[Smithy]

I have three, two stainless steel - one from my brother-in-law (given to me filled with aquavit, and the other from my mother-in-law. I also have a silver plated one that my sister gave to me on the occasion of my 21st. I tend to cart one around when I go fishing, hunting, to a rugby match, that sort of thing.

In terms of glass, looks nice but you will break it. Or at least I will, as I am always dropping mine, seems I always need a swig just moments before I hook something or somebody scores a try. Sod's Law I suppose

 

[Boodles]

Bourbon in SS flask

My experience has been much the same as Mr Tomasso describes below. I often leave bourbon of one brand or the other in stainless flasks with no ill effects. Two of the flasks are those cheesy Soviet era things which were sold for pennies after the Union was dissolved. Years ago and before using them the first time I boiled the flasks throughly and since have kept them filled and in with my kayak gear. These flasks are really sturdy.

I once unintentionally left a flask (stainless steel) full of Makers Mark unattended for several months with no discernable deleterious effect.

 

[RKidd]

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[RKidd]

If memory serves me, a couple years ago Stetson after shave came out with a "flask" bottle. After the smell goods were used up it was to be converted into a drinking flask. It was glass covered with leather.

 

[Ethan Bentley]

My my Grandad used to keep in his car back in the day on his trips to Edinburgh in case he broke down.

 

[Bourbon Guy]

Read most of the thread.

First off, why in the world would anyone have liquor in his flask for more than 3 days? Or more than one evening for that matter?

Second, whiskey is what one puts in a flask. Gin drinkers who carry their own, drink from a little bottle they try not to break on the curb when they fall down.

 

[Unca Dusty]

I hear you. I have a few stainless flasks but my favorite is my 200ml Tanqueray bottle, labels removed. The green glass looks nice and a little less conspicuous than stainless. Plus if you break it, the worst that can happen is you have to buy another 200ml of Tanqueray.

Yes, excellent point! I have two metal flasks that have significant, unattractive dings in them while a glass hip flask (brown glass--used to hold a very cheap, disgusting liquor called Virgin Bourbon--it wasn't bourbon, I think "virgin bourbon" is a name for furniture polish that would like to be whiskey some day) that I have had for 25 years is fine. The thing is, I think I'm just more careful with it because it is glass.

 

[Unca Dusty]

Pewter Flask: A No-No

So all the talk about flasks made me look up my old pewter one that my cousin had engraved and given me as a gift. Supposedly, it was beverage grade pewter--but I rarely used it because, frankly, it was ugly. Just tried to unscrew the cap and found it so corroded to the flask it wouldn't open!
Now, I know I cleaned and dried the flask before putting it in a drawer--all I can think is that maybe I didn't wash the cap carefully and there was enough booze on it to react with the screw neck. Nasty!

 

[Chainsaw]

If it's stainless, take a magnet to it. If it doesn't stick, it wont rust. There shouldn't be any contamination flavor wise. Don't wash with soap, just rinse with water (or vinegar if needed), often.

 

[Geesie]

So all the talk about flasks made me look up my old pewter one that my cousin had engraved and given me as a gift. Supposedly, it was beverage grade pewter--but I rarely used it because, frankly, it was ugly. Just tried to unscrew the cap and found it so corroded to the flask it wouldn't open!
Now, I know I cleaned and dried the flask before putting it in a drawer--all I can think is that maybe I didn't wash the cap carefully and there was enough booze on it to react with the screw neck. Nasty!

Also, lead.

 

[Bourbon Guy]

I received as a gift a nice looking, 18 ounce stainless steel flask. It's huge!
How long can I store booze in it before it tastes bad (metallic)? The directions that came with it state booze is good for 3 days but that seems ridiculous to me. Can anyone shed some insight or experience? Thanks!

3 days in the flask? What did you do, lose it? Left it in a suit coat pocket?

A flask is intended to get you through those hours, hopefully limited, in which you are near neither bar nor home. Like a canteen in a desert. Fortification at the bar mitzva. Sustenance to endure the theater. A hidden cross to protect you from (shudder) teatotaler friends.