safe to brew in home?

[Gadersd]

I am trying to make ethanol to use as fuel. I mixed sugar, water, and yeast together in a bottle in an attempt to make some usable ethanol. The gasses that the yeast emits worries me. Are these gasses harmful? My house is the only place I can brew in since the winter weather outside is too cold.

[jholmz]

welcome to the forum many of us ferment in the house . the fuel question has been beat to death here, and sugar water and yeast will work some but a good recipe is needed you need some sort of yeast nutrients.(but i guess your using turbo yeast also). check out the fuel thread here http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=5 there might be something you can use there.

[meatheadinc]

Gases are Co2
I often have 2-3 25 litre fermenters going in the house.
Hasn't hurt me, but I live in a temperate climate and never have the house sealed up.
If you had many large fermenters going inside with no ventilation, you will probably have an O2 shortage.
Rapid ferments will also create gas more rapidly.

[S-Cackalacky]

I am trying to make ethanol to use as fuel. I mixed sugar, water, and yeast together in a bottle in an attempt to make some usable ethanol. The gasses that the yeast emits worries me. Are these gasses harmful? My house is the only place I can brew in since the winter weather outside is too cold.

Fermentation creates alcohol and Carbon Dioxide gas - probably not enough to displace the breatheable air in your house.

How much did you pay for that sugar? Last I checked, a 5 lb bag at Walmart was about $2.48. Five lbs will make about a half gallon of alcohol. That works out to about $5.00 per gallon just for the sugar and then there's the cost of the yeast and the electricity or propane to run it through the still and then there's about an 8 hour day of your time to produce that gallon of ehtanol. Is it worth it?

Just sayin',
S-C

[Gadersd]

What kind of nutrients can I use to help the yeast?

[S-Cackalacky]

What kind of nutrients can I use to help the yeast?

There's a section of the forum called "Tried and True Recipes". There are some simple sugar wash recipes there that might help. I would also suggest that you research a little more into the alcohol fuel subject. You may find that it's simply not worth your while to pursue it.

S-C

[Gadersd]

Would one of my crushed multivitamins work. It contains zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B.

[MitchyBourbon]

Yes, that would work fine. Yeast also need calcium and nitrogen.

[woodshed]

Yes you can ferment in the house. Mixing up sugar, water & yeast is not brewing. No you cannot produce ethanol for fuel and do so in a cost efficient manner. To do so in a legal manner requires a free permit from the government and a few basic requirements, such as a separate building to distill.
If you really want to pursue the fuel thing I'm sure it is covered here. Google up!

[dakotasnake]

there are several ethenol plants around my area. they all use corn and that isnt cheap. without gov. subsidies and tax breaks and other gov programs they would all lose money. just my opinion youd be better off saving the money elswhere and use that money to buy gasoline. i dont mean to be a killjoy, but facts are facts. if you could figger out how to use grass and weed clippings for fuel than you may have something.

[rad14701]

Take advantage of this great site and do some research before wasting more time and effort... You clearly don't know enough about the process to be successful at the act of futility with regard to making your own fuel... There are plenty of topics started by novices who also thought it was a viable option... Not aware of anyone who has continued down that path for very long...

[stevenun]

I make wine in the house. At peak I had two five gallon car boys and a 7 gallon bucket bubbling away. Not dead yet. I wouldn't worry about the CO2. I'd be more worried about the funky smell and pissing off the wife (although when I fermented apples for wine the house smelled like apple pie for a week!)