Whey Alcohol Fermentation with Mixed Yeast Cultures

This paper study the process of whey alcohol fermentation with mixed yeasts cultures. After the experiments of strains combination, the yeast strains of Saccharomyces uvarum TY-3, Saccharomyces uvarum TY-1 and Saccharomyces carlsbergensis AY-5 were selected and mixed at the ratio of 5.0:2.5:2.5. The optimized fermenting condition was obtained through orthogonal experiments with the result as follows: the initial pH value was 6.5, the starter was 10% (v-v^-1) and after fermenting at the temperature of 34degC for 24 hours, the alcohol concentration in the whey was 3.0% (v-v^-1). Sucrose, glucose and lactose were evaluated as the sources for carbohydrate supplementary at the amount of 5% and 15% (w-v^-1) respectively. Experiments indicated that 15% of glucose was added into the whey when fermenting for 24 hours. After 72 hours, the alcohol concentration in the whey reached 10.1% (v-v^-1), which indicated the possibility of whey wine fermented by mixed yeast cultures.