Alcohol Stoves & Beer Brands

I can no longer find Heineken in the beer barrow shaped cans.  These were the perfect size and shape for making alcohol stoves.  A soda can seemed to fit perfectly inside the Heineken can.  I made dozens of these stoves, and only rejected a few due to leaks around the seams.  These leaks would cause the flames to come out around the top seam instead of the holes in the top.  I used one of these stoves for months on the AT.  They are light and completely reliable.  I used a tomato can with slits along the side for a stand.  The tomato can helped the stove remain hot so that the alcohol flames came out as jets.  I also had a cough syrup measuring cup to measure fuel amounts.  I got so good at estimating fuel that when the flame went out, my dinner was cooked to perfection.

Ryan Conklin (http://followingblazes.blogspot.com/) posted the link below on his blog concerning several options for alcohol stoves.  Probably about half of the thru hikers on the AT in 2008 used alcohol stoves, and the most common design seemed to be the Heineken beer can model.  I see from this website (http://zenstoves.net/) that there are several other beers that use a slightly smaller can that might work well for alcohol stoves.  I'm going to try Guinness this weekend.  If that doesn't work, I will have to pick another brand for next weekend.  I'll just keep trying new brands until I find something that works.

The zen stove website also had a comparison of fuel weight and heat.  Petroleum fuels might have about a third more heat per pound, but I liked the denatured alcohol stoves because denatured alcohol was so easy to find and it did not explode like petroleum.  The alcohol stove is also so light that a few more ounces of alcohol is probably still an overall weight savings.  The only problem was that the flame is nearly invisible during daylight.  We used to joke about not knowing if your stove was lit until you can smell the hairs on your hand burning. 

My Heineken Stove on the AT