Nutrient utilization profile of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae from palm wine in tropical fruit fermentation

The nutrient utilization pattern of Saccharomyces cerevisiae from palm wine was studied using tropical fruits as substrate. Starter cultures were prepared by growing 15-18 h old stock cultures of the yeast in successively larger bottles containing pasteurized fruit must. Microvinification, substrate utilization and assay of yeast activity were performed. Soluble solute (SS) content of the juices ranged from 10-18 Brix. Pinapple must had the highest SS content (18 Brix) while pawpaw had a low SS value of 10 Brix. These SS values were low compared to that of grape juice. The wines produced from the fruit must had percentage alcohol levels ranging from 10.6 to 12.6. Volatile activity ranged from 0.25 to 0.32 while crude protein values ranged from 0.58 to 0.68%. Palm wine yeast and all the other yeast strains fermented and utilized the fruit must for growth with specific growth rates ranging from 0.18 to 0.22. Sugar loss in Brix was gradual for all the fruit musts from 20.0-24.0 Brix to a range of 4.8 to 6.0 Brix. Pineapple was highly preferred for tropical wine making. Mango, cashew and pawpaw had equal ranking for commercial scale fermentation though more sugar will be needed to ameliorate cashew and pawpaw than mango juice. Palm wine yeast (OW-11) compared favourably with the other wine yeasts (CBS 8066 and ATCC 4126) both in nutrient utilization pattern and growth performance. A high degree of adaptability was observed in palm wine yeast recommands it for industrial wine production.