Feedstock for ethanol production

[pHzero]

I'm considering making some ethanol by fermentation, so I can get some (relatively) pure EtOH to use as a solvent, not adultered with MeOH and pyridine, and also just to try my hand at fermentation and distillation, for the fun of it basically.

So can anyone recommend a feedstock for the yeast? The most obvious one would be sugar, but its pretty damn expensive.

Apparently in beer production, no sugar's used at all, and all of it comes from enzymes in barley digesting the seed into simple sugars which the yeast can act upon. Is the same possible with porridge oats? My local supermarket sells them at 73p/kilo, so if they work, they'd be great. I've also heard that sweetcorn works quite well.

So, which is the best to use?

[iNow]

I'm not sure if oats would work, but since they have carbohydrates I'd imagine the yeast would get some food out of it.

 

A close friend of mine uses sweet corn or barley. He'll either buy a huge sack of barley from the feed store, or go to a place like Sam's Club or CostCo to get giant several pound bags of frozen sweet corn. Another thing I've seen him add is tomato sauce, as that has lots of sugars and also some of the acid that yeast needs (if he doesn't use tomato sauce, he tends to use concentrated lemon juice in small amounts).

 

Those work rather well. Sometimes, however, regardless of the ingredients, the yeasts struggle a bit, and regular old white granulated sugar needs to be added to give them a jump start. It really depends on what strain of yeast you have, what is the temperature, how steady is the temp, and things like that.

 

Also, try to bear in mind that the type of feedstock you use will have a HUGE impact on the final flavor of your product. If you use oats, I'd suggesting buying a small amount and doing a minor test run... instead of buying a huge amount and taking the chance that it doesn't work and will go to waste. Anyway, have fun. I hope this helps.