Sugar cane spirit (cachaça): Effects of mixed inoculum of yeasts on the sensory and chemical characteristics

• Mixed inoculum of yeasts improves the quality of cachaça.
• MALDI-TOF allowed monitoring the yeast inocula during fermentation.
• Cachaça from mixed inoculum showed higher levels of desirable volatile compounds.
• Cachaça from mixed inoculum showed greater acceptance in sensorial analysis.
• Mixed yeast inoculum is a new interesting technology for cachaça production.

The main goal of this study was to produce cachaça using a mixed inoculum of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Meyerozyma caribbica and characterize the produced beverage using HPLC, GC–FID, GC–MS and sensorial analysis. Additionally, the use of MALDI-TOF as a tool to characterize and monitor pure and mixed inocula fermenting sugar cane juice was also evaluated. Vat fermentations were carried out for three consecutive batches using autoclaved 16 °Brix sugar cane juice fermented by a mixed inoculum of M. caribbica 107 cells/mL and S. cerevisiae 108 cells/mL. The cachaça produced by the mixed culture of M. caribbica and S. cerevisiae showed the highest concentration of volatile compounds associated with good sensory descriptors such as ethyl hexanoate (114.11 μg/L), 2-phenylethyl acetate (2.77 μg/L), a-terpineol (0.45 μg/L), b-citronellol (2.47 μg/L), and geraniol (0.24 μg/L). This beverage consequently showed greater acceptance in the sensorial analysis for taste and aroma, especially by younger panelists. The feasibility of MALDI-TOF use under studied conditions was demonstrated by the comparison of the results obtained from yeast cultivation in YPD broth, YPD agar and sugar cane juice, showing that there was no interference of sugar cane juice in protein profile. The results obtained from MALDI-TOF analysis showed that the protein extraction directly from sugar cane juice under fermentation, without the traditional plating step, allowed the distinction between mixed and pure inocula even under different M. caribbica populations and Brix degrees.

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