Posted: 10/18/2016 11:23:46 AM EDT
Not the kind of "brew" you're thinking of
I’ll post up pictures later, but this has a special meaning for me personally. This isn’t really designed for a bug-out bag or what I use for distance backpacking; however, it fills a nice niche for my get home bag, my minimalist/bushcraft pack and my day-hiking bag. I have a few of these put together with the intention of having a small brew and calorie package that would easily get me through a 72-hour situation, waiting out a storm or just relaxing and taking an extended break on a day hike. This is my main brew/ration kit when my son and I do our fall/winter, minimalist bushcraft outing. We try to augment with fish or frogs (can’t hunt where we practice this, but fishing is fine), but it serves its purpose to have a warm drink or meal along with calories for a two or three day trip. I will say up front, this isn’t my “day-hiking” snacks. This is stuffed into my pack for emergencies or just a good opportunity. I rotate the expendables at least annually as we will pick up stuff for our longer backpacking trips that usually occur spring through fall. The contents are kept in both a small dry bag and/or small pot. Of course a pot, mug or single-wall water bottle is essential as many of the items require heated water. I often pack a small alcohol stove, but have used the pot or bottle directly over a fire to heat the water up. So, what the heck is a “brew kit”? It’s been almost 15 years now, but on one of my deployments, we participated in an exercise in Egypt. It was late fall time and it was in west-Egypt which is a pretty arid, rocky desert. I was commanding a small task force and during one of my site recons I ran into a British RETRANS (commo) team in their cool Land-Rover. So, I was joking with the Brits, asking when “tea time” was…and of course the responded “it’s always time for tea time!” and invited me to join them in their brewing. They just used a little stove to heat up water for coffee and tea, but as we started talking their “brew kit” I discovered it was more than just a few packets of coffee, tea, creamer and sugar. They had some chocolate bars, crackers and dehydrated soups. These weren’t read-made kits, they were just components of the meal rations that they collected and kept in a small container they labeled “brew kit”. So, in honor of my Brit brothers-in-arms, I designed my own little brew kit(s). Along with my small dry bag, I’ve upgraded one kit to include the 700ml Vargo titanium BOT with handles. I like it as a viable water container and pot, but it also can store some of the brew-kit contents and the lid can serve as a “cup” (although I routinely pack along a collapsible Sea-to-Summit silicon mug). Add a folding spoon to complete the compact package and it’s not just for emergencies, but enjoying a warm drink with the wife or just waiting out a storm under a poncho/tarp with a hot cup of soup. A few energy bars for calories and some instant oatmeal if I decide to stay overnight. Again, pictures to follow tonight, but here’s the contents of my “Brew Kit”: Tea bags (4) Coffee/Substitute (6-8) Instant hot cocoa (2) Instant soup mix (2) Bouillon packets (2) Instant oatmeal (2) Emergen-C (electrolyte/vitamin) packets (4) Clif-Bar (1) Pemmican Bar (1) Granola/Snack bar (1) Fruit rollup snacks (2) Dehydrated fruit snacks (2) Hazelnut (chocolate) butter packets (2) Now, I typically day-hike with an energy bar, pepperoni sticks/beef jerky and some trail mix, so you can see for me this “brew kit” is more than enough for 72-hours of moderate weather and enough calories to hike a little distance if needed. Although there is some nutrition and calories, it’s really designed as a “morale” booster, but could be used in case of an emergency. If I pack a smaller “nesting” mug, I can dump the dedicated cooking pot, and for ease of use, it’s nice having a small alcohol stove (or heat tabs) to quickly heat up some water. Just wondering if anybody else packs a contingency “brew kit” of their own. Again, this is not necessarily the snacks or food I would pack for a day-hike, bugout bag or backpacking trip, but part of my day-hiking packing list where I could use it if needed or just ignore it as it’s not typically used. ROCK6 |
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Not as elaborate as your brew kit, but when in the woods I always carry something to heat water in, a couple tea bags, and a couple bullion cubes. Sometimes I add a Folgers Coffee Single or two. IME, an Esbit stove works well for heating water in a canteen cup or Olicamp cup. |
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I actually have a couple too many energy bars and although I drink my coffee black, it wouldn't be a bad idea to find some packets of creamer. Instead of sugar, I would also rather find some individual packets of honey, although they would have to be in their own Ziploc in case there's a breach. I'm swapping out bullion cubes with bullion packets as they're easier to pack.
I currently just have a Tangia alcohol stove in the cook pot. It's a little heavy, but I like the fact you can store it with four ounces of fuel. That is enough to boil 3-4 pots of water. I may use a lighter Fancy Feast stove and just carry a separate fuel bottle. I also have compact solid fuel stove which uses esbit fuel tabs, but I prefer the simplicity of alcohol. I also need to replace my ripped up aluminum foil windscreen which just lines the inside of the pot. 
ROCK6 |
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Quoted:
Anytime is tea time. My brew kit in use on a Montana bird hunting trip. Great ideas to expand my kit, thanks! I don't care for creamer or sweetener in my coffee and I actually have been drinking more of the instant "Dandy Blend" substitute...no caffeine, but I still drink coffee black. Now tea, I do like to add sweetener and I'm considering the honey-crystals packets as they would be less messy than regular honey. Anybody use honey-crystals as a sweetener? Any thoughts? 
ROCK6 |
Yeah, the honey crystals are pretty decent, but if I want my drink "honey sweet", I have to add two packets. They work well on oatmeal also if you want to sweeten it up. Another item I'm trying is the ginger and honey crystals drink. It's like an Asian tea I've had a long time ago; pretty sweet, but with that definite ginger flavor that can be too strong if not used with enough water.
My wife and I climbed Yona Mountain in NE GA yesterday. There were a ton of people, but on the way down we found a nice little area to set up the stove and have a cup of coffee. I'll have to consider carrying some other sweeteners as she used the creamer and honey crystals, but didn't care for the honey flavored coffee She just ended up having hot cocoa. I will say she liked those "VitaPerk" which is supposedly a flavored alternative with some vitamin value over creamer for coffee. These were vanilla flavored and she really liked the one she tried in her other coffee (not the one ruined with honey crystals). It's been good to bring this experiment back up and I'll plan a little two-day minimalist trip with my son when it cools off. The brew-kit will be the mainstay and we'll see if we can add some fish for dinner.
I do like some of the non-caffeine warming drinks for hydration and warming before bed such as the Dandy-Blend coffee substitute, bullion packets, instant soups and even the tea or ginger/honey drinks. They can also be used to warm up in the middle of the night without disrupting your sleep too bad...of course coffee in the morning is still the best morale booster! ROCK6 |
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I had a "wholesale" version of that in my deployment kit bag that was gallon freezer bags of teabags, instant soup packets, starbucks via packets, instant drink mixes, etc as well as some freeze dried entrees from cold weather and long range patrol meals. I put together a bastardized jetboil using a titanium jetboil canister and a lightweight stove kit from ruta-locura. Stupid light and packs up a bit smaller than a standard jetboil. selected parts from this kit with some rip its or monsters would go into a small duffle and hang in the back of my truck if we were going on overnight missions. I minimized it and still carry a version in my camping pack and my 48 hour bag in my truck. I had looked at the honey ginger packets at the local fancy grocery. Will have to pick some up. I also add a quart bag with some brown sugar in it as it is my preferred coffee and tea sweetener.
Good times, Blake |
Got some use out of mine today. My brother and I went for a hike in Fort Washington State Park, outside of Philadelphia. I used my Esbit cookset to boil water for tea. It's a really nice little mess kit that can use either a Trangia-type alcohol burner or Esbit tablets.
I used my old GI canteen cup and my brother used the lid from the cookset. The yellow things on the cups are Snowpeak Hotlips, silicone doohickies that allow you to drink from a hot metal container without burning your lips. 
I carried my stuff in a 1970s vintage Soviet surplus veshemok pack. It carried a ~16 pound load surprisingly well for something that's not much more than a canvas sack. 
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Quoted:
Got some use out of mine today. My brother and I went for a hike in Fort Washington State Park, outside of Philadelphia. I used my Esbit cookset to boil water for tea. It's a really nice little mess kit that can use either a Trangia-type alcohol burner or Esbit tablets. That's a good little cook kit. I made it out today. Took our new pooch on a 8 mile hike with a little running at times, but we did stop to have a doggy snack and water (for him) and I had a cup of "Dandyblend" drink mix and later a hot cup of green tea with a couple packets of the honey crystals. Ironically, I didn't take a camera or even my phone . I used an Trangia alcohol stove. One thing I forget was a small piece of tin foil for a wind screen...it was quite evident as it took twice as long to boil a couple cups of water and twice the amount of fuel.
ROCK6 |