Microbiological Origin of “Framboisé” in French Ciders

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 109(4), 299–304, 2003 In this work, populations of acetic acid bacteria and zymomonads were studied and the kinetics of several parameters followed in three ciders: one “healthy”, one “framboise” and one stabilized. In the “framboise” cider, correlations were observed between cider-sickness symptoms (reduction of sugars, production of CO2 and increase of ethanol and acetaldehyde content) and the presence of a bacteria growing on a zymomonads medium. When inoculated in a “healthy” cider at pH 4.1, the bacteria induced cider-sickness symptoms while no symptoms were observed at pH 3.7. The bacteria were characterized and identified by sequencing of the 16S rDNA region and corresponded to a strain of Z. mobilis pomaceae. A detection study on 17 spoiled ciders and 5 “healthy” ciders appeared to indicate that there was a high prevalence of this microorganism involved in “framboise” cases in France. To our knowledge this is the first description of the involvement of Z. mobilis strains in French “framboise” ciders.