Diversity of yeast species during fermentative process contributing to Chinese Maotai-flavour liquor making

Abstract

Aims: The famous traditional Chinese Maotai‐flavour liquor is produced by a unique spontaneous simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process, which contributes to a distinctive yeast community with specific physiological properties and performances. Therefore, it would be useful to investigate this yeast community and reveal the novelty of its characteristics. Methods and Results: Nine yeast species were obtained from the fermentation period. A combination of physiological and functional analyses revealed a very high diversity of yeast populations. In particular, the extremely high temperature and low acidity of the fermentation conditions led to an accumulation of species with distinctive heat‐ and acid‐resistant properties. Moreover, these yeast species were also significant flavour contributors, for various alcohols, acids and esters. Conclusions: The Chinese Maotai‐flavour liquor‐fermentation process is rich in yeast resources with distinctive fermentation properties, which were different from other beverages. Significance and Impact of the Study: This work is the first to study the complex yeast ecology of the Maotai‐flavour liquor‐making process. It allows a deeper insight into the mechanism of this process.

Investigating the Variation of Volatile Compound Composition in Maotai Liquor During Its Multi-Rounds Brewing Process Using Statistical Methods

“…The research includes microorganism composition analysis (1,2), the isolation and characterization of functional strains (3), fl avour component determination (4,5), and the analysis of the relationships between the microorganisms and fl avour compounds (6,7). However, the utilization of multiple fermentation and distillation steps, a very special technique for Maotai-fl avoured liquor manufacturing, has not received enough academic att ention so far.…”

Starter Culture Selection for Making Chinese Sesame-Flavored Liquor Based on Microbial Metabolic Activity in Mixed-Culture Fermentation

“…The fermentation process has previously been shown to be mainly dominated by Bacillus coupled with variable levels of yeast species, such as S. cerevisiae and non-Saccharomyces species. Of this native microflora, the yeasts and bacteria play an essential role in liquor making because they are responsible for the alcoholic fermentation and also for the synthesis of other minor metabolites that determine the aroma and other sensorial properties (7,20).…”

“…Its production technique is similar to that used to produce a liquor of the strong aroma style (18) but with the additional stage of stacking fermentation. Before fermentation in the pits, newly steamed grains are mixed with Daqu (the starter), stacked in the ground, and fermented for 24 to 40 h. This stage is derived from the production technique used for soy sauce aroma-style liquor (7). The fermentation process accumulates a specific and complex community of microorganisms, including fungi, yeasts, and bacteria.…”

Galactomyces geotrichum – moulds from dairy products with high biotechnological potential

“…This could have been due to the lack of precursors suitable for the synthesis of aromatic compounds. Of all the isolated strains, G. geotrichum presented the smallest levels of volatiles (Wu et al, 2012).…”

“…Another alcoholic drink was examined by Wu et al (2012), who aimed to identify the microorganisms which affect the flavour of Maotai-favour liquor, a traditional Chinese alcohol produced from fermented sorghum. The G. geotrichum mould was isolated from a sample of this alcohol.…”