Boundless Microbiology
Industrial Microbiology
The Microbiology of Food
Created by Boundless
About Watch and Favorite
Watching this resources will notify you when proposed changes or new versions are created so you can keep track of improvements that have been made.
Favoriting this resource allows you to save it in the “My Resources” tab of your account. There, you can easily access this resource later when you’re ready to customize it or assign it to your students.
Wine, Beer, and Alcohol
Register for FREE to remove ads and unlock more features! Learn more Register for FREE to remove ads and unlock more features! Learn more Assign Concept Reading
View Quiz
View PowerPoint Template
The production of alcohol beverages is a process that involves the active participation of microorganisms, most often yeasts.
Explain why microorganisms are used for beer, wine, and sake production.
Yeasts are the main fermentor and alcohol producer in the production of wine, beer and other alcohol drinks.
The main yeast species used is Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It ferments the sugars, coming from different sources, e.g., grapes for wine, barley for beer, to alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Both wild and cultivated strains are used. The species or strains used in the fermentation play an important role in giving the final taste properties of the drink.
The unfermented grape juice of crushed grapes that contains fruit, seeds and skins.
Register for FREE to remove ads and unlock more features! Learn more Full Text
Humans have been producing alcoholic beverages for thousands of years. The production of alcohol in these drinks is based primarily on yeast fermentation. Yeasts are eukaryotic microorganisms that ferment variety of sugars from different sources into the final products of carbon dioxide and alcohol.Wine productionWine is made from grapes or other fruit. The grapes are first cleaned of leaves and stems and the fruit is crushed into must that is ready for fermentation. The yeasts used for the fermentation grow a film on the fruit or in the environment. These wild strains play an important role in the final properties of the drink. However, cultivated strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae are often added to improve the consistency of the final product. There are hundreds of commercially available yeast strains for wine fermentation.
The white film that covers the grapes contains wild yeasts.
In the fermentation process, energy that is converted to heat is produced as well. It is important to keep the temperature in the fermentation vessel lower than 40ºC to keep the yeasts alive. To improve yeast growth, additional nutrients, like diammonium phosphate, are sometimes added in the fermentation step.When making red wine, there is an additional fermentation step after alcoholic fermentation. Malic acid, naturally present in grape juice, can be converted to lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria naturally found in wineries or added artificially.Beer productionBeer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. It is made most often of malted barley and malted wheat. Sometimes a mixture of starch sources can be used, such as rice. Unmalted maize can be added to the barley or wheat to lower cost. Potatoes, millet and other foods high in starch are used in different places in the world as the primary carbohydrate source.The process of making beer is called brewing. It includes breaking the starch in the grains into a sugary liquid, called wort, and fermenting the sugars in the wort into alcohol and carbon dioxide by yeasts. Two main species are used in the fermentation process: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (top-fermenting, since it forms foam on top of the wort) and Saccharomyces uvarum (bottom-fermenting). Top-fermenting yeasts are used to produce ale, while bottom-fermenting produce lagers. The temperature used for top-fermenting (15-24ºC) leads to the production of a lot of esters and flavor products that give beer a fruity taste. Hops are added to introduce a bitter taste and to serve as a preservative.Brewer's yeasts are very rich in essential minerals and B vitamins, with the exception of vitamin B12. Beer brewing in modern days is performed by added pure cultures of the desired yeast species to the wort. Additional yeasts species that are used in making beer are Dekkera/Brettanomyces. After the fermentation is finished, the beer is cleared of the yeasts by precipitation or with the use of clearing additives.Other types of alcohol beverages are made by the fermentation activity of microorganisms as well. A few examples are sake (uses the fungus Aspergillus oryzae to facilitate starch fermentation from rice), brandy, whiskey (both are distilled alcohol), and other alcohol beverages with higher percentage of alcohol compared to wine and beer.
Assign Concept Reading
Assign just this concept or entire chapters to your class for free.
[ edit
Edit this content
Prev Concept
Purification of Drinking Water
Next Concept
Create Question
Referenced in 2 quiz questions
All of the following are steps in wine-making EXCEPT:
Microorganisms used in the production of beer, wine, and sake because microorganisms produce:
Key Term Reference
Appears in these related concepts: Damage to Proteins and Nucleic Acids, Shared Features of Bacteria and Archaea, and The Taxonomic Scheme
bacterium
Appears in these related concepts: Antibiotics and Selective Toxicity, Immediate Direct Examination of Specimen, and Generation Time
Appears in these related concepts: Oxygenic Photosynthesis, Hydrothermal Vent Microbial Ecosystems, and Fermented Foods
Appears in these related concepts: Building Organizational Culture, Cultural Universals, and Culture and Biology
Appears in these related concepts: Carboxylic Acids, Strong Acids, and Filtration
Appears in these related concepts: Bacterial Transformation, Characteristics of Prokaryotic Cells, and Characteristics of Eukaryotic Cells
Appears in these related concepts: Syntrophy, Anaerobic Cellular Respiration, and Early Biotechnology: Cheese, Bread, Wine, Beer, and Yogurt
Appears in these related concepts: Other Fungi Involved in Respiratory Disease, Microbial Ore Leaching, and Histoplasmosis
Appears in these related concepts: Synthetic Antimicrobial Drugs, Naturally Occurring Antimicrobial Drugs: Antibiotics, and Phenotypic Analysis
Appears in these related concepts: Food Spoilage by Microbes, Chain of Transmission, and Types of Disinfectants
Appears in these related concepts: The Species Concept in Microbiology, Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, and The Biological Species Concept
Appears in these related concepts: Vitamins and Amino Acids, Digestive Processes of the Large Intestine, and Food Requirements and Essential Nutrients
Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:
"Boundless."
http://www.boundless.com/
Boundless Learning
CC BY-SA 3.0.
"must."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/must
"Beer."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer
"Yeast."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast
"Wine."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine
"Alcoholic beverage."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholic_beverage
"Red wine."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_wine
"Wine Grapes with dusting that contains yeast."
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wine_Grapes_with_dusting_that_contains_yeast.jpg
CC BY-SA.
Source: Boundless. “Wine, Beer, and Alcohol.” Boundless Microbiology. Boundless, 26 May. 2016. Retrieved 29 Aug. 2016 from https://www.boundless.com/microbiology/textbooks/boundless-microbiology-textbook/industrial-microbiology-17/the-microbiology-of-food-201/wine-beer-and-alcohol-1008-11101/
Canvas Integration
Visit Support
Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.