Fermentation is a natural process that uses a kind of fungus called yeast. When given the right conditions of warmth and moisture, yeast will digest sugars in fruit or other plant materials and give off carbon dioxide gas and alcohol. Fermentation is used on a huge scale to make alcoholic drinks and ethanol for use in industry.
Alcoholic fermentation is the best known of the fermentation processes, and is involved in several important transformation, stabilization, and conservation processes for sugar-rich substrates, such as fruit, and fruit and vegetable juices. Alcoholic fermentation is carried out by yeasts and some other fungi and bacteria. The first step of the alcoholic fermentation pathway involves pyruvate, which is formed by yeast via the EMP pathway, while it is obtained through the ED pathway in the case of Zymomonas (bacteria). In the following step, the pyruvate is decarboxylated to acetaldehyde in a reaction that is catalyzed by the enzyme pyruvate decarboxylase.
Alcoholic fermentation is a biotechnological process accomplished by yeast, some kinds of bacteria, or a few other microorganisms to convert sugars into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. In this fermentation process, yeast is mostly used as a bio-culture and aqueous solution of monosaccharide (raw materials) as the culture media for the production of beverages. In the alcoholic fermentation process, yeast generally carries out the aerobic fermentation process, but it may also ferment the raw materials under anaerobic conditions. In the absence of oxygen, alcoholic fermentation occurs in the cytosol of yeast. Alcoholic fermentation begins with the breakdown of sugars by yeasts to form pyruvate molecules, which is also known as glycolysis. Glycolysis of a glucose molecule produces two molecules of pyruvic acid. The two molecules of pyruvic acid are then reduced to two molecules of ethanol and 2CO2.
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