I think the FANCY FEAST cat food stove is probably more practical and certainly much easier to make than the Beer Can stove.
While the beer can stove appears to have gas "jets" the cat food can does not. I don't think there is much real proof that one works better than the other.
Alcohol stoves made from cans are the MOST RELIABLE backpacking stoves ever invented. Alcohol is cheap and easy to find at Auto Parts stores
(yellow bottle HEET brand gas line anti-freeze) and Hardware stores
(denatured alcohol type paint thinner). They are hot enough to boil water, but not to fry most foods so they are best suited for "cooking" dehydrated meals by boiling some water and pouring the water into a bag of Mountain House food, making instant oatmeal, etc.
I would note a few things about BOTH of these stoves, and these apply to ALL alcohol stoves:
- They are pretty crappy stoves in the winter! In fact they should not be relied upon in the winter since alcohol doesn't burn hot enough, and at cold temps it tends not to off gas enough vapor to actually burn hot enough to do much.
- Second, they require a windscreen in any weather that can be described as 'breezy' and in 'blustery' conditions really need a very good shielding from all directions. A windscreen can be made out of HD Aluminum Foil.
For high altitudes consider a white gas stove. For lots of conditions consider a pressured canister stove like those from Snow Peak, MSR, etc. These stoves also burn hotter, have adjustable flames, can be used for frying foods (like fish), or for boiling water.
In Europe consider an Esbit Solid Fuel stove or a Bleuet Solid Fuel stove (different brand, basically same thing). Solid Fuel is popular and easily available in Europe. Its performance is similar to an alcohol stove, it can boil water, not much more. It works better at high altitude than alcohol stoves.
There are lots of variations of of the Fancy Feast stove, this video is by a distant nephew of mine, who was actually named National Geographic's explorer of the year a couple years ago.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pajkt594Ruw"]Fancy Feast Cat Food Can Backpacking Stove - YouTube[/ame]
Other stoves to consider, depending upon conditions:
FWIW, I personally own a Snow Peak GigaPower, a SOTO Muka, an Esbit Pocket as well as an alcohol stove.