Restarting incomplete fermentations: the effect of high concentrations of acetic acid

Abstract

A high concentration of acetic acid has been suggested to be a cause of incomplete fermentation. Acetic acid can reduce the growth and fermentation activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and incomplete ferments can contain a high concentration of acetic acid, although the origin is often not clear. Here we examined the concentration of acetic acid which could hinder or prevent the restarting of an incomplete Cabernet Sauvignon fermentation by three acclimatized wine yeast cultures. By taking advantage of new technology which combines reverse osmosis and ion exchange, the concentration of acetic acid in an incomplete commercial ferment was adjusted to between 0.5 and 4.0 g/L. At a concentration up to 4 g/L, acetic acid did not prevent the restarting of the incomplete ferment. No lag period was observed in any of the fermentations. The amount of sugar fermented after 20–21 days was dependent on the strain of Sacch. cerevisiae and was correlated with the initial concentration of acetic acid at the time of restarting, between 0.5 and 2.0 g/L, with the concentration of residual sugar increasing with the concentration of acetic acid. In ferments which contained 4 g acetic acid/L, however, the rate of sugar consumption was sufficiently low after 20–21 days to suggest that complete fermentation would not occur, even with prolonged incubation. Effective treatment of the incomplete fermentation was therefore possible in the presence of up to 2 g acetic acid/L. Cell viability and fermentation kinetics were also strongly dependent on the strain of yeast.