and don’t just add the beers to the bucket. move cold ones to one side. add beers to the other side and demarcate.
Wrap a wet paper towel around it and put it in the freezer.
Set it outside in the Midwest for about 10 seconds.
If you’re camping, won’t you be near running water? Stick that crate of beer in the stream!
Case.
On camping, we anchor the case of beer in the middle of a fast-flowing mountain stream. Just make sure you bring it in before nightfall.
A few years ago my friends and I rode 5 hours on our motorcycles to the racetrack to watch a weekend of AMA superbike motorcycle races. Our respective wives/girlfriends drove an SUV holding our tents, camping gear and supplies and met us there. All of us got there about the same time. The coolers of ice and the beer had sadly not been introduced to each either.
Wandering at the top of my lungs screaching to the heavens and the assembled masssives gathering among us in the campgound, I cried out for the Love of God I’d trade 2-for1 warm beers for a cold one. People took pity and fed us cold beer on the spot 1-for1.
So to answer the OP, chilling beer is one thing, getting cold beer in hand the issue.
Some pretty decent beer comes in cans nowadays. Karbach and Southern Star are brewed in my area. Cans are easier to recycle–just toss the crumpled cans into the container & avoid the sound of breaking glass! Also, quick to chill–but I’d avoid the salt…
Bingo. I came in to say this… set a timer for about 10 minutes and a room temperature bottle will be sufficiently cold. I assume cans would work the same, or even faster.
Interesting (I hope) sidenote:
When rafting the Grand Canyon a few years ago, our guides simply let a large stash of canned beer trail behind us in a heavy net. By the fourth day, the 24X7 bumping and rubbing of the cans had removed all the paint. When we pulled up the net we had a collection of identical silver cans. This annoyed the picky drinkers among us as they couldn’t tell whether it was a Bud or a Miller (as if it mattered). 
I remember the stream method now that you mention it. The water in a fast flowing stream can be pretty damn cold even if its hot outside. My dad used to do this for cokes (he’s not a drinker). He’d stick a six pack of cokes in the steam while he fished, pulling one out occasionally to drink it. Near as I could tell, they were always ice cold.
It is true there are more varieties of beer in cans. Sierra Nevada (among the beers I like) comes in cans, with more and more varieties. However I will note that ‘craft’ beer is kind of hard to find in can form
Oskar Blues brewing (Dales Pale Ale) has pushed canned beer, and might be considered craft.
Craft beer is increasingly being sold in cans. Our local craft brewers are can-only, and (as kayaker notes) Oskar Blues has been doing it for years.
If you’re just chilling a few, these things work WAY better than you’d think. I have them in 750-ml size, and a friend has the beer ones. My first thought before I bought them were they were a gimmick, but nowadays we rely on them. In fact, my biggest problem with them for wine is that if I forget to take them off, they get the wine too cold.
I read once of an Army Air Corps bomber squadron in North Africa during WWII. The CO scored several cases of non-regulation beer for his men. There being no refrigeration available, someone had the bright idea of loading the beer onto one of the bombers, cruising around at high altitude for half an hour, and then descending. Behold, ice-cold beer for heroic but thirsty American aviators!
That was a regular trick in North Africa. Maybe not for beer, but just for ice. I remember them talking about that in A Wing and a Prayer: Utah Man over Ploesti.
. . . if you live in a state that allows sale of cold beer.
Really? There are states where beer can only be sold at room temp? Amazing.
This. Don’t leave them for those damn nocturnal beer stealing trouts.
Every year I don my wetsuit and participate in an early spring men-only kayak and canoe trip. The water is icy cold and participants include young guys wearing jeans and a t-shirt and having no previous stream experience. All told there are 100 or so paddlers.
I always launch and head for the first set of rapids. A few canoes overturn early, spilling their beer. For the rest of the trip I play clean-up, grabbing a cold floater whenever I’m thirsty.
Archaic laws abound. In PA you can buy cold beer, but only a certain number of ounces at a time unless you are at a distributor. This leads to consumers paying for a twelve-pack, putting it in the car, and going back in to repeat the process. You could theoretically purchase every last bottle and can, but it has to be done gradually.
I tried the wet paper towels on the beer in the freezer. Works, but I’m not sure how much faster it is.
Liquor laws are strange. As far as I can tell there’s no goofy laws to navigate in California! 