Hello, lovely wine-dabblers! Today I shall be going over the *basic* overview of alcohol-making in under ten minutes! It is, obviously, much deeper than this, but sometimes you just need a good place to start. (This is that place.)
Vocabulary:
fervere – the Latin term meaning “to boil”
“ferment” – a term for yeast used from the 1680s to the 1850s
Saccharomyces – Greek for “sugar fungus,” also the name for a genus of fungi; AKA: lots of yeasts
Saccharomyces cerevisiae – also known as “brewers yeast” or “bakers yeast”
Lactic acid fermentation – fermentation in which glucose is converted by bacteria into lactate
Ethyl alcohol fermentation – fermentation in which glucose eats yeast and defecates ethanol and carbon dioxide
Acetic acid fermentation – fermentation process in which lactate is converted into acetate
Ethanol molecule – CH3CH2OH
Glucose molecule – C6H12O6
Pyruvic acid molecule – C3H4O3
anaerobic respiration – the method in which cells take energy from glucose without the assistance of oxygen
Prokaryote – single-celled organism lacking a nuclear membrane (bacteria are prokaryotes)
Eukaryote – a cell that has a nucleus within a nuclear membrane
Glycolysis – metabolic process in which glucose converts to pyruvic acid
Metabolic process – a chain of chemical reactions that happen within the cells of living things which enable said living things to keep growing
Enzymes – proteins that act as biological catalysts for metabolic processes
ADP – adenosine diphosphate
ATP – adenosine triphosphate
NAD+ – nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
anoxygenic – does not involve the production of oxygen
The steps to ethyl alcohol fermentation
1. Yeast introduced to glucose
2. Yeast eats glucose
3. Glycolysis: yeast breaks down its food (glucose) into pyruvic acid
4. Pyruvic acid breaks down into carbon dioxide and ethanol
Resources:
^to learn about the cells
^evidence of the earliest alcoholic drink in the world
^one source of fermentation learning
^another source of fermentation learning
^and more fermentation learning!
^how yeasts work in fermentation
^to learn more about yeast, or rather, the fungus: saccharomyces
Music:
Pluckandplay by Kwon
Orange Smile by Saidbysed
Acid by Jeremy Black
Hip Hop by Atlantic Tunes
*Disclaimer*
I am a home winemaker, designer, and student of wine. I did not specialize in biological science. I am presenting my findings from the perspective of the average wine enthusiast with a high school level education in biology.