Ultralight Backpacking Stoves

clementine candle we made earlier in the week

Jeff and I met two guys on our long backpacking/road trip last summer while we were hiking down Paria Canyon. Since most of the people you encounter on trails in the East are middle-aged former Eagle Scout mid-level businessmen burnt out on life in Manhattan and trying to reclaim some sense of peace they remember having in the woods as awkward tweens, it was a welcome surprise to be leap-frogging with two people who graduated with degrees in ecology four years prior. They were truly inspirational both for our backpacking lives and as humans in general. These two guys--it's hard for me to call them men or boys, since they seem like neither--were through-hiking the Grand Canyon. To do so, they struck a practical balance between ultralight hiking and bring-your-whole-house-to-the-backcountry camping. We spent two days and two nights together, mostly due to a lack of decent campsites, but we learned a lot from each other. The one thing that Jeff and I were most taken with was their stove.

It was extremely light, durable, and good for international travel. Made from two Heineken cans fitted together, it burned isopropyl alcohol which you can get anywhere and which costs a small fraction of white gas. They kept a small gatorade bottle with fuel, and when they were done cooking, would blow out the flame, let the stove cool and then pour the remaining alcohol back into the bottle. I fell in love with the efficacy. They told me it was called a penny stove, and I could find instructions to make it online.

Back in New York, we set to work one dull afternoon looking up ultralight stove options. Below, a good roundup of resources.

How do these ultralight beer can stoves work?
Beverage-can stove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Overview of alcohol stove categories
Zen and the Art of the Alcohol Stove

Another compilation of stove how-to's
Wings -The Home Made Stove Archives - Index of Contents

This one intense stove, also known as a "Mark Jurey Penny Stove," and likened to a Viking rang burner. According to zenstoves, it is pressurized.
Penny Stove Instructions & FAQs




I don't really enjoy listening to this fellow speak, but he does know his stuff.

Inspired by the video above and this sweet DIY clementine candle, I got to thinking that it would be really amazing to carry a citrus fruit and some veggie oil on a future trip as a stove-snack combo.

We have had limited success with our Heineken can stove trials, but excellent results with clementine candles. Since we buy fancy-pants olive oil, we decided to burn Crisco brand soybean oil instead. It works famously.