Burning ethanol and methanol will not produce soot, unless they have been denatured with a product that does produce soot (I seem to recall someone from Australia mentioning that this is the case down under).
The trick is to figure out what products are actually ethanol or methanol. Ethanol is the same thing as grain alcohol (so high-proof everclear is actually a good stove fuel). Denatured alcohol is widely available in hardware stores, which is ethanol with additives to make it undrinkable. Marine alcohol (for marine stoves), alcohol fireplace fuels, and fondue fuel are typically denatured ethanol, also.
Methanol is wood alcohol, and it is poisonous (you don't want to even inhale the fumes, especially in an enclosed space like a tent, and it can be absorbed through the skin to toxic levels in high quantities). Used carefully, it is a good fuel and is sold in a number of common forms: methanol, methyl hydrate, methyl alcohol, to name a few. A number of anti-freeze products are nearly pure methanol, also. HEET in the yellow bottle is a popular example, and most brake line anti-freeze are just methanol (I have seen 1 gallon jugs up here for $4).
Stay away from isopropyl alcohol as it is the one that causes soot. Rubbing alcohol is usually isopropyl alcohol, as is HEET in the red bottle. Some other anti-freeze products are also isopropyl alcohol -- a good way to check is to find MSDS sheets for the products online from companies like Reochem. (Up here in Canada, Canadian Tire is a good source:
http://msds.canadiantire.ca). Hope that helps some.
