Filling up with E85 is exactly like filling up with regular, except that if you're dumb enough to huff the fumes, you might notice that E85 smells like cheap vodka instead of gasoline. Driving an Impala on E85 also is exactly like driving an Impala on gasoline, except for slightly improved throttle response. It takes about four judgment-impairing beers before the Impala starts to look attractive, and since I was driving sober, I didn't get too excited about my ride. In all fairness, though, the Impala cruises down the highway just fine. It also has nice chrome door pulls in the interior and the most draft-free sunroof ever made, but there's nowhere to put your change.
After finally arriving in Golden, I take a tour. The ethanol plant sits in a small corner of the fifty-five-acre brewery and makes ethanol from two sources. First, the slush of yeast left over from the brewing process is dried. The dried yeast goes to Purina for use in cat food, and the wet part--called yeast condensate--is distilled into alcohol. The other source of ethanol is straight beer. Beer spilled in production, beer that doesn't meet specification, and oversupply (how can there be too much beer?) is all turned into fuel instead of being treated as wastewater. About 98 percent of the ingredients in the brewing process either end up in the beer or get recycled. The ethanol plant works a lot like a vodka distillery, except it has an added step that separates every last molecule of water so it won't screw up your engine.
To me, a lapsed engineer, it is all incredible. And the free beer provided at the end of the brewery tour has me feeling fine. So I'm feeling pretty good about ethanol. Reducing our foreign oil consumption is a good idea, even if ethanol does that only by a tiny amount. And it doesn't cost extra to have an E85-equipped car. Every Impala with the base 211-hp, 3.5-liter V-6, for instance, is a flexible-fuel vehicle.
Economically, there are a lot of good things going for ethanol as well. Oil production is running near peak capacity right now, and demand continues to increase. In other words, oil is not going to get cheaper, but renewable ethanol should stay around the same price. It also has help in the form of a 51-cent-per-gallon tax credit. But ethanol isn't on every corner yet; it's not even close. There are still thirteen states that don't have any E85 stations. For now, E85 remains a fuel of the future unless you live near an ethanol pump. The closest I'll get to "Live Green, Go Yellow" will be more like "Go Yellow, Live Green" after I drink a case of Coors Light and recycle the cans.