Ultralight Coffee Options

Hi Ken

They didn’t exist when I made mine, but basically, yes. Mine is not as tall: doesn’t need to be.

Cheers

Roger, can you take a couple more pics of your MYOG filter?

Don’t have a spot welder, but do have a 3D printer. I’m curious as to whether or not I can 3D print something similar in nylon that will hold up to the temp.

Hi Curtis

See below. Mind you, I suspect the MSR Mugmate would be about as good.

I made it a long time ago – pre Mugmate. Actually, I first made my spot welder so I could make this filter. I used a squat plastic jar (wife’s face cream) as the mould – the jar became the coffee container after that. It is light enough and fits inside the filter for packing and stops the filter from being squashed. A bit of cotton fabric around the lot and it is then stored inside my mug. Ah … the cotton rag is now very coffee-coloured!

If you have the mesh, I think you could make the filter without a spot welder. Just peel off a couple of long strands of the SS wire from the edge of the mesh and SEW the thing together. After I spot welded it together I glued up the joins with silastic, and I think that was very important.

The 1 mm SS wire around the rim holds the shape of the rim and makes the ‘hook’ which hangs over the edge of the cup. No optimisation, just as I hacked it together.

Nylon melts somewhere above 260 C. It would take the heat of coffee.

Cheers
Roger

If “Nylon melts somewhere above 260 C” then why bring an additional nylon mesh when our liner (or primary) socks are already a nylon mesh?

Multipurpose!

I have two problems with the use of nylon socks as coffee filters:
1) Residual coffee grounds make the socks very harsh on the feet
2) Residual foot smell in the socks makes the coffee … undrinkable.

Otherwise, yes, nylon mesh would work. I made my SS filter long ago, before I had checked on the temperature range for nylon.

Btw, GSI sells a coffee filter made of nylon fabric. See
http://www.austinkayak.com/products/23781/GSI-Outdoors-Ultralight-Java-Drip-Coffee-Filter.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMyxZHiBCCU

Cheers

What if you used the ankle part of the sock instead of the foot part?

Coffee with heeling powers?

Scene: ER
Case: acute abrasion of the ankle, due to coffee grounds…

Cheers

I just read through 8 pages of coffee suggestions and I dont think I saw a mention of Maxim instant packets:

This is standard Korean office coffee… comes mixed with sugar and cream, but “gourmet” coffee in Korea always has sugar and cream.  I’m more of a cold brew guy (aka 3x’s the recommended Nescafé Classico shaken in with my ice cold filtered stream water), but I bring these along with my wife for a post-lunch pick me up.

What’s ultralight coffee?  Decaf?  Black coffee (because it’s like 2 calories without cream and sugar)?  I drink a pot of coffee every day.  No kidding.  Despite the eventual ever-lasting headache and groggy feeling, coffee while hiking is a luxury item to be left at home–and I am not even an ultralighter!

With that, when I do bring coffee along I usually do the cold press method, which can be done with either ground coffee or whole beans.  Actually, I learned it as cold press using whole beans but know of some who call it ‘cold brew’ and use ground beans.

Basic method:  before you go to bed add a tablespoon of grinds to a 12oz. plastic bottle full with water, of course.  Cap it and there you go; coffee is ready in the morning.  No need for instant coffee and this method can make even Yuban taste good.  Then again, I drink coffee for the caffeine, not the taste.

Hi Sam
I think you are missing out on the ritual :-)
Cheers

Recently I stumbled across Alpine Start instant in REI and bought some.

Spendy, yes, but it truly does taste like a great cup of home-brewed coffee. It doesn’t have that burned aftertaste of Via.

After having drunk a pot or more per day for many years, in the past few months I have had to cut back drastically on coffee consumption (insert long medical story), which means 2 cups/day when I’m home or 1 cup on the trail. Thankfully the afternoon headaches from caffeine withdrawal are behind me.  :^/

When are they going to make instant Mountain Dew? I don’t do coffee 

Nobody cares

Not until they’ve had that first cup

Putting on the kettle now

Sam is missing out.

I think you are missing out on the ritual :-)

YES!!!  The ritual is 50% of what makes good coffee…ask any hipster.  On second thought, scratch that.  Don’t talk to hipsters  :)

I use reusable gold filters. You can find them in Target, Macys, BB&B. etc. They come in a single cup size (which is what I use) all the way up to filter #4 size.

The best part is I bring the ground coffee of my choice in a ziploc bag. No longer do I have to settle for freeze fried stuff. It’s small, light, and I drink exactly what coffee I want.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/medelco-reusable-single-serve-coffee-filters-set-of-2/1018168952?categoryId=14304

After reading this thread and trying yet another instant, I hope I have learned my lesson to not drift into anymore coffee threads. No matter the brand, instant is instant. Tried a few of them. Mostly failures. Tried the Alpinestart: yep, it is instant. Never thought of myself as a coffee snob, but I guess I am. Starbucks does come close, but all in all a real brew is best.

That said, I do not think I have seen the coffee brew buddy mentioned anywhere in the coffee threads. It is cheap, somewhat light, packs down to almost nothing and gets me that fresh brew anywhere.

From now on I will just grind em, pack em, and put em in my brew buddy and enjoy fresh brewed trail java.

Now if I could only find the powdered version of heavy whipping cream to put in it. ;)