Aromatic Potential of Diverse Non-Conventional Yeast Species for Winemaking and Brewing

Traditionally,Saccharomycesspecies are those used to conduct industrial alcoholic fermentations. Recently, an increasing interest has arisen with respect to the potential of so-called non-conventional yeasts to improve wine and beer aroma profiles, keeping the particularterroirof each region or for the development of craft beers. In this study, the potential of diverse non-conventional yeasts to improve aroma in winemaking and brewing was investigated, testing several pure and mixed culture combinations. In addition, a comparison between microscale and labscale was carried out in order to assess the value of microwine and microbeer as screening tools. The results indicated that non-Saccharomycesyeasts were good candidates to enhance or diversify aroma profiles in alcoholic beverages, especially regarding acetate ester yield and fruity aromas. However, mixed cultures withSaccharomycesspp. are normally required to achieve a successful fermentation. The adjustment of pithing ratios is crucial for this purpose. Microscale is presented as an effective and efficient screening tool to compare different culture combinations, although scaling-up will always be necessary in order to get results closer to real winemaking or brewing processes.