Fermentative Stability of Wine Yeast Saccharomyces Sensu Stricto Complex and Their Hybrids

Alina Kunicka-Styczyńska* and Katarzyna Rajkowska

Institute of Fermentation Technology and Microbiology, Technical University of
Łódź, Wólczańska 171/173, PL-90-924
Łódź, Poland

Article history:
Received July 12, 2011
Accepted December 7, 2011

Key words:
wine yeasts, yeast hybrids, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces bayanus, stability

Summary:
The objective of this paper is to investigate the technological usefulness of selected industrial wine yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces bayanus and their intraand interspecific hybrids responsible for excessively acidic musts. The stability of yeast fermentation profiles in apple musts was assessed after 90–170 generations, following previous subculturing under aerobic or anaerobic conditions in media with or without L-malic acid. During this study, 35 apple wines produced by wild strains and their segregates were statistically evaluated according to 12 chemical parameters. Although the wines met the official standards for basic chemical parameters, their total acidity was too low. Both the yeasts and their segregates metabolized from 66.3 to 77.0 % of malic acid present in the must. The industrial wine yeasts and their hybrids exhibited marked polymorphism of fermentation profiles in apple must with elevated L-malic acid content. At the same time, the level of demalication activity made it possible to clearly differentiate segregates from the wild strains, which may suggest that malic acid is probably one of the principal factors in the adaptive evolution of yeasts. Our study proves that among industrial wine yeasts, there are both, strains expressing very high stability (Saccharomyces cerevisiae W-13) and labile ones (S. cerevisiae Syrena). The interspecific hybrids S. cerevisiae × S. bayanus showed low stability of technological features, while the intraspecific hybrid of S. cerevisiae preserved its fermentative capacity. The presented results indicate that fermentative stability assessment under environmental stress can help to select the yeast strains best suited for the fermentation of specific musts.

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