How To Make The Best Off Grid Coffee Maker For Cheap

Coffee, the glue that keeps modern society functional. Without our morning life blood dragging yourself into work becomes nearly impossible. What happens to the magical elixir when the power is out and the coffee pots won’t turn on? How do you make coffee without electricity? I’ve been thinking about how to make an off grid coffee maker for a few weeks now. Most the time I walk around in a semi-daze with projects going through my head. For this project, I had a list of things I needed my off grid coffee maker to accomplish. I wanted it to be simple to make, easy to operate, not be made of plastic, take any heating method available and not just produce any cup of coffee but the BEST cup. While I still have a few kinks to work out my trial run produced an amazing cup. Now let’s get to brewing!

How To Make The Best Off Grid Coffee Maker For Cheap

I went through several design ideas before settling on the one I went with. I chose this one for its utter simplicity. It is cheap and easy, things I love, and anyone can make it. To make  your very own off grid coffee maker you will need the following items:

• Glass Wine Decanter
• Pyrex Measuring Cup
• Coffee Filters
• A rubber band

The total cost for this project was less than $3 since I had the measuring cup, filters, and rubber band already. The measuring cup is even optional, you really just need a vessel to heat up water in. To make things quick I used the microwave this time. My Jetboil would work just as well during a power outage. The beauty of the design is that you can heat the water up any way you like, camp stove, fire, candles or even solar.

Set Up

For my test run, I made one cup of coffee. Which turned out to be about all I can do with the size filter I have. Place your filter in the decanter, coffee pot, fold down the edges and hold in place with the rubber band.  I looked up coffee grinds to water ratio for optimal brewing. For one cup this comes out to be two tbsp.

Once you have your coffee grinds in the filter slowly pour your water over them. When you  cover all the grounds stop and  wait while it filters through. After all the water is through pour the rest slowly in a circular motion until all the water is poured. When it has drained through remove the filter and pour.

Conclusion

There you have it, an off grid coffee maker as simple as you can get. How did it taste? Amazing! I’ve drunk  a cup from my traditional maker and this one side by side. They literally tasted nothing alike. The cup from the off grid pot tasted very close to a Starbucks cup. That very distinct taste that only a Starbucks cups taste like. Also, my off grip cup didn’t have what I describe as the scorched flavor you get from a traditional maker.

As for improvements on this, the only thing I can think of is getting bigger coffee filters. Bigger filters mean more grinds and brewing more coffee at one time. Also, the coffee soaked into the paper and a little bit dribbled down the side of the pot. I’ve seen the long cone shaped filters and will try those next. I really want to find/make a permanent metal mesh one so nothing needs replacing.

I love how simple this design is. Fewer parts mean less chances for failure. With the quality of brew that came out, I don’t see a reason to complicate things either. In a power outage, the disaster or grid down scenario I want the simplest and best brew I can get. This is that solution to that problem. For a few bucks go give this a try and let me know what you think.

Do you have plans in place for off grid coffee? What do you brew in/with? Let me know in the comments!