Microorganism species and inoculation fermentation methods have great influence on physicochemical and flavor properties of rice wine. Thus, this work investigated microbial interactions and physicochemical and aroma changes of rice wine through different inoculation strategies of Wickerhamomyces anomalus (W. anomalus) and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae). The results underlined that inoculation strategies and non‐Saccharomyces yeasts all affected the volatile acidity, total acidity, and alcohol content of rice wine. The sequential cofermentation consumed relatively more sugar and resulted in the higher ethanol content, causing reduced thiols and increased alcohols, esters, phenylethyls, and terpenes, which was more conducive to improve rice wine flavor than simultaneous cofermentation. Moreover, simultaneous cofermentation increased fatty aroma of rice wine, while sequential cofermentation increased mellow and cereal‐like flavor. These results confirmed that sequential cofermentation of S. cerevisiae and W. anomalus was a choice for the future production of rice wine with good flavor and quality.

To understand the effect of microbial community on the flavor of fermented rice wine, microbiomes in three traditional starters (CMQ, NBQ, and YCQ) from different origins for making Chinese rice wines were evaluated and the volatile components of their rice wines were compared. The results showed that the dominant genera in CMQ were Pantoea, Bacillus, Rhizopus, and Candida, the dominant microorganisms in NBQ were Pediococcus, Lactobacillus, Acetobacter, Weissella, Bacillus, Rhizopus, Candida, and Aspergillus, the dominant microorganisms in YCQ were Pediococcus, Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc, Weissella, Lactococcus, Ochrobactrum, Rhizopus, and Mucor. There were significant differences in sensory properties of the wines brewed by three starters. Although the major aroma components were benzyl alcohol, 2-octanone, benzoic acid, and phenethyl acetate, each rice wine had its own main aroma components include 1-octanol, 1-pentanol, ethyl acetate, etc. The results showed that the different microbial communities in starter results in the significant difference of the aroma components in its fermented rice wine.

Non‐Saccharomyces are very important for the flavor and quality of fermented wine. The fermentation kinetics, the flavor characteristic, and sensory evaluation of rice wine fermented with Nakazawaea ishiwadae (SITCY001), different genotypes of Wickerhamomyces anomalus (SITCY125 and SITCY601), and Candida glabrata (SITCY597) were analyzed in this study. Results showed that the curves of reducing sugar consumption were well fitted by Logistic, Boltzmann, and DoseResp models. Compared with other three strains, SITCY125 had higher alcohol contents and lower ratio of ester‐to‐alcohol, indicating stronger alcoholic and mellow aroma. Moreover, rice wine fermented with SITCY125 had higher sensory score in texture, fruit‐aroma, flower‐aroma, and sweetness, while having lower bitterness score. These results indicated that among the four strains, SITCY125 was the best choice to improve the flavor and quality of rice wine, which made the aroma characteristic more distinct and would have potential industrial application prospects in rice wine brewing. Practical applications With more and more people high demand for rice wine flavor, yeasts are widely used to improve the aroma and quality of fermented rice wine. This study would be helpful in promoting the potential industrial application of non‐Saccharomyces yeasts in rice wine brewing.

Summary Mixed starter of pure mould and yeast was designed to circument the problem of flavour characteristics in rice wine. The result underlined that the mixed starter (Q7) made by simultaneous inoculation of Rhizopus oryzae, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Wickerhamomyces anomalus and Candida glabrata had the highest contents of α‐amylase (8.02 ± 0.96 U/g) and sensory scoring (92.05 ± 2.24), presenting relatively strong flower‐aroma, wine‐aroma, Qu‐aroma and rice‐aroma. Meanwhile, the total concentration of flavour compounds in rice wine (RQ, 125.828 mg L−1) obtained from rice fermentation using Q7 were better than the commercially available rice wine (SS, 125.828 mg L−1). The E‐nose analysis showed that the flavour components in RQ differed dramatically from SS. The E‐tongue results indicated that the sourness, sweetness and umami aftertaste were greatly higher in RQ, and the bitterness and astringency are lower compared with SS. This study provided a method to improve the flavour and quality of rice wine.

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