When I go on my spontaneous wild camping nights on tops of mountains etc, I need to make sure the kit I carry up with me will look after me. If you think I have a rucksack full of tent, roll mat, sleeping bag, enough dog food, water, cameras and more then I need a stove that will boil water efficiently and warm my dinner and breakfast, but with absolute minimal weight. It can all soon mount up and before you know it you can be hurting yourself carrying too much on the climb instead of enjoying the great outdoors.
I shall be focusing on my wild camping kit list in a new article coming soon but I have been specifically asked about what I currently use for cooking and morning coffees so here we go, the Alpkit Brukit. Portable, light, and coffee made for sunrise in less than 3 minutes.
Why I Like It
There were a couple of important things I considered before buying a camping stove for wild camping.
Weight and size
This is very important to me. As I have said, on a wild camping trip, with dog, you have enough weight to carry and already a big rucksack full. So a good but light stove was key. The Alpkit Brukit comes in at less than 600 g.
All the components fit neatly within the pot for storage on the move, and this includes room for a 100 g gas canister. No need to carry that separate.
Efficiency and speed boiling water
OK, life is meant to be slow and relaxing out in the wild. But I must admit I thrive on coffee and love to enjoy a warm brew whilst watching the sunrise from a mountaintop in the early hours. I have the 1 litre pot version and when when full to the top with water I timed it to take around 2 and a half minutes and no more than 3 in cold and windy conditions.
1 litre is obviously a lot more water than a mug of coffee so you can even say less than three minutes for all your meal’s water needs. Boil in the bag too.
A 100 g gas canister lasts me around 20 – 25 of these boils too.
What Is Included
The burner section that underneath you can screw into your gas canister. But also the 1 L pot lock into it on top. For easy ignition it has a piezo igniter built into it.
You have the 1 litre pot for water but if you want to cook something other than boil in the bag, there is a stand for your pan, a hob, that you can neatly attach on the burner instead of the pot. This enables you to gas cook using a small camping pan or mess tin etc.
The pot itself is aluminium and has a silicon lid to keep the heat in, helps the fast boil plus has pouring holes if you need.
Plus, of course the gas canister when attached becomes the base. So to help with stability on uneven ground there is a fold away little stand.
Verdict
My main use for this is on mini adventures, wild camping. It needs to be light, small and efficient. I personally only use it for boiling water for coffees and boil in the bag meals. And it works perfectly for all my needs. I have even used it on day hikes as an alternative to carrying a flask. I know I can wake up on a windy mountain top, and have a full litre of boiling water within five minutes. Perfect.
There are of course other makes and models on the market that I considered. Jet Boil for instance. It may save a few seconds on the time to boil. It may save 100 g in weight, but is that worth almost triple the price? Not for me.
If I was to go camping for a few days in a campsite and want to start using pots and pans to create bigger, less wild meals, of course I would need to go for a larger, multi hob stove.
Hi Paul..re Alpkit Brukit..really fancy one of these but read a couple of reviews on one of the sites that said it didn’t work that good with casters 50% full or less..which worries me as anything out for more than a couple of days means I run the risk of not being able to do anything if the gas starts getting down. Admittedly , these two reviews I read recently were from2015 so the problem may have been rectified by now..Can you shed any light on this , and did you try it with a low level canister ? No use me buying one if it’s only good for a couple of days when the gas is top half full..
Hi Tom, great question. I have used many different makes of canister and only one has let me down out of many. The smaller type are best due to being able to store inside the brukit when carrying. As for how long lasting? I have never had the problem of only lasting a couple of days at all. It boils fast enough for me and less than 3 or 4 minutes which then means you are not using up all the gas either. I got about 5 wild camping nights out of one canister on average if helps.