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Lactic acid-producing yeasts could soon replace conventional tartaric acid. Encouraging results are reported from France with acid-producing yeasts of the strain Lachancea thermotolerans. These are able to produce lactic acid during fermentation. This makes them interesting for the fermentation of wine and beer, which are traditionally produced with Saccharomyces yeasts. Lachancea thermotolerans can also be used in co-fermentation with wine yeast or instead of lactic acid bacteria. It thus offers an alternative to traditional malolactic fermentation.
Matthieu Rey, an oenologist working in Bordeaux, inoculated individual batches with this yeast at the beginning of the fermentation process, which then increased the lactic acid content to up to 20g/l. He then added Saccharomyces to the wine. He then added Saccharomyces to get the alcoholic fermentation going. "In the end, we had a wine with a pH of almost 3.10, which made it possible for us to correct the acidity of the other tanks during the harvest to lower the pH and achieve higher active SO2 levels. For me, this is a tool of the future," he explained.
According to Rey and other oenologists, this method, also called "bio-acidification", is cheaper than tartaric acid and at the same time brings improved aromatics. In addition, the acidifying yeast does not have to be declared as an additive on the label.
(al / Source: vitisphere)