Question: I'd like to make some extra icepacks to put in my coolbag. The 2 commercial icepacks it comes with don't maintain the temperature for long enough, so I've tried supplementing them with plastic bottles of water that I've frozen. This works reasonably well but are there other containers that would work better and is there anything I could add to the water?

Answer: 
This may seem to be a simple approach but here it goes. 2 options:

1. 2 separate coolers, one for beers one for food. If you don't open the food cooler till the morning the cooling will last much longer.
2. The easier option: place your beers in the freezer as well not long enough for them to freeze but maybe 5 hours they would drop to -4 > -7 degrees, but not freeze. Therefore bottles or cans are not damaged but cold enough that they will double the life of your cooler as they will continue to cool all the time they are in there.
The "R" value of the cooler insulation as well as the seal around the lid are important in retaining the cold. The size of the cooler is also important because the ratio of ice to the product you are trying to keep cool is also a factor. You can get pink RV anti-freeze used to winterize drinking water pipes and tanks in boats and motor homes It is I would assume non-toxic if accidentally ingested. Ice packs made from anti-freeze would probably cool faster to a lower temperature but not for a longer time.