Description of Alcoholic Fermentation Kinetics: Its Variability and Significance

Abstract

In order to more precisely describe the kinetics of alcoholic fermentation and to show its considerable variability according to the musts, a study using an automatic device for monitoring fermentation was carried out; 45 musts were tested under isothermal standard conditions. The on-line measurement of the fermentation rate appeared to be particularly worthwhile because: (1) its maximum value, obtained early during the fermentation process, was well correlated with the fermentability of the musts; and (2) the trend of the rate curve was independent of temperature and was characteristic of the pair must-yeast strain.