For a home-made alcohol stove made with perlite in it, what is the best fuel? Is it safe to use with anything other than alcohol?

I've started to wonder how many subcontracotrs there are for Esbit tabs. I've found that the older, military packed ones (three tabs in a yellow plastic and foil pack) work better than the newer, civilian style ones (red and silver with clear plastic individually wrapped ones).

One thing that I've found helps them is a reflector under the stove, along with side pieces. Mine are aluminum foil, and while I have the same problem you do with a pint of a water, I can get it hot enough to have bubbles up the sides of the pot.

Have you tried using the tabs with an alternative burner, such as this one?

This site has a ton of good info about liquid fuel stoves and what to use in them:
http://zenstoves.net/
I particularly like the beer can stove designs, they seem to work much better than perlite stoves and i've built the one with the penny in the top.

Thanks guys.