I'm not sure what recipe you are referring to but, I brew beer at home.
The malts that I use have a great deal of sugars in them which the yeast
works on. The yeast will consume these sugars and produce alcohol and co2
as a by-product.
If I were recommending a particular sugar and yeast I would recommend
corn sugar and a brewers yeast. I would recommend creating a sugar/water
mixture of ~1.50 specific gravity. I would boil this for 5-10 minutes to
ensure that bacteria and wild strains of yeasts were destroyed. Set
the liquid in a cold water bath until it was cooled to ~75 degrees F and
then add the yeast. You can make up to 5 gallons with this process. It
will take 12-36 hours to start to ferment. The gas produced by this
fermentation is co2.
DO NOT TIGHTEN A COVER ON THIS MIXTURE as the build up of co2 could cause
the container to explode. In brewing terms we refer to these as "bottle
grenades". They are quite dangerous as they shoot broken glass out in
much the same way a hand grenade works. We have heard of a number of
cases where home brewers have been seriously injured by overlooking
this important point.
The fermentation will last for from 2 - 5 days. When I brew beer, I
place the mixture in a large 5-6 gallor carboy and attach an air lock
to allow the gas to escape without allowing contaminants to get into
the liquid being fermented.
If you are a beer drinker, maybe you should consider combining your co2
requirements with brewing--two needs satisfied for the price of one.
Let me know if I can be of any more help.
Tom
temerson@citib.com