Performance of mixtures of Saccharomyces and non-Saccharomyces native yeasts during alcoholic fermentation of Agave duranguensis juice

• Mixture of two yeasts is proposed to be used as an inoculant for mezcal production.
• This inoculant produces mezcal with a high yield and richness of volatile compounds.
• This inoculant could be used for production of spirits from different agave species.

Agave juice is fermented and distilled twice in order to obtain mezcal, a traditional spirit beverage. The goal of this study was to select yeast or yeast mixtures that could be used in industrial production of high-quality mezcal. Yeasts isolated during fermentation of Agave duranguensis were tested to identify the best strains with respect to the chemical and organoleptic characteristics of the produced mezcal. Three individual yeast strains were selected for further study: Torulaspora delbrueckii strain ITD-00014a, Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain ITD-00185, and Kluyveromyces marxianus strain ITD-00147. Analysis of the response surfaces permitted identification of three inoculants: one mixture (75% S. cerevisiae ITD-00185 and 25% T. delbrueckii ITD-00014a) and two pure strains (100% K. marxianus ITD-00147 and 100% S. cerevisiae ITD-00185). Mezcal made by using the inoculant constituted by 75% S. cerevisiae ITD-00185 and 25% T. delbrueckii ITD-00014a (named mezcal 75Sc/25Td) was the best in terms of yield, richness of volatile compounds, and acceptability in sensory tests. We propose using this mixture of yeasts to develop a product that can be used as an inoculant in industrial production of mezcal and others spirits from different agave species.