Beer-based Ethanol is the Best/Worst Idea for Car Fuel

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

A New Zealand chemist has found a good use for spent yeast normally discarded after brewing beer, Popular Mechanics is reporting (via AutoFocus).

It’s not the first time beer-based ethanol has been used to power cars, but New Zealanders can fill up on 98-octane (!) booze-fuel for a limited time. The mix is 90 percent gas to 10 percent beer ethanol.

(Note: I covered parts of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver and remember the Coors-powered cars in Denver and think it’s the best imaginable use of Coors Light)

New Zealand-based brewery DB Exports calls their fuel “Brewtoleum,” but they have a much more clever marketing campaign.

Alcohol and motors are nothing new: Top Alcohol dragsters, most cars on the road in Brazil and corn-fed ethanol in the states.

But for beer-producing states in the United States (California, Michigan, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon and the other 45 states in the union) the spent yeast conversion could justify keeping whatever it is that Anheuser-Busch makes these days around for longer.


Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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 9 comments
  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Aug 06, 2015

    Excellent now if we can just get mandates for additional beer production to create the discarded yeast...

  • TrailerTrash TrailerTrash on Aug 06, 2015

    Although I hate the use of alcohol in fuel, I can at least accept this concept. I have never been able to get my mind around the use of our food as a means of fuel when there are other sources. Not to mention the best is still plentiful. Burning this planet's food for fuel is a measurement on the level of insanity in the world today. There might be starving people, but we find it socially acceptable to burn food. Plus the total loss of energy by the dilution from alcohol and the increased consumption through lower MPG still cannot be explained. And when I see the availability and the crashing of the price of oil today and look back on the doomsday criers all these years, I can no longer bother to listen to the sky is falling headlines. It is all politics. Oh my, look...the world did not end and we did not run out! However...IF the alcohol comes from unused and otherwise discarded waste...then I can be a bit more willing to consider.

    • See 4 previous
    • TrailerTrash TrailerTrash on Aug 06, 2015

      @SunnyvaleCA where did you here about corn grown for fuel is not the same as corn for human consumption? It isn't sweet corn we are talking about here. This is the very same corn used for starch, oil and animal feed. There is no corn grown just for fuel...unless the farmer decides where the better money can be gotten when planning the selling. However, I heartily agree with you about the stupid land use/abuse here. We need to understand this entire program is political and about money.

  • 319583076 319583076 on Aug 06, 2015

    I thought this stuff was made into vegemite and/or marmite?

  • Pch101 Pch101 on Aug 06, 2015

    98 octane in NZ (and much of the rest of the world) is equivalent to about 93 octane in the US and Canada. It's premium, not racing fuel. Conspiracy mongers probably don't realize that ethanol serves as an octane booster. That allows refiners to refine gasoline to a lower octane level (which saves a bit of oil), then boost it up with the ethanol.

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