The Kinetics of Alcoholic Fermentation by Two Yeast Strains in High Sugar Concentration Media

Over the last two decades, most of Italian vines have produced grapes with higher sugar to total acid ratios, greater concentrations of phenols and aromatic compounds and greater potential wine quality. As a consequence, the musts obtained by these grapes are more difficult to process because of the risk of slowing or stuck of fermentation. With the aim of describing the time evolution of the sugars bioconversion during alcoholic fermentation, the kinetics of the D-glucose and D-fructose degradations, promoted by two yeast strains (Saccharomyces cerevisiae (strain C) e Saccharomyces bayanus (strain B)), was investigated using synthetic media, added or not with ethanol. The concentrations of both the substrates and the products of the sugars conversions, as well as the number of viable cells of yeasts, were determined as a function of the alcoholic fermentation time and the related kinetics constants determined.