Food brewing technology is an important technology in the modern worldwide food industry, which uses the specific traits of microorganisms to produce food by traditional or modern engineering techniques. The products produced by food brewing technology have spread all over the world. Among them, alcoholic products (Chinese Baijiu, fruit wine, rice wine, beer, whisky, etc.), as important fermented food, have been loved by consumers all over the world. This Special Issue includes a total of eleven articles, and nine of them involve research on brewing technology of alcoholic products and brewing microorganisms. This phenomenon indicates that the alcoholic products industry occupies an important position in the field of food fermentation. Therefore, in response to the research content of these nine articles, this editorial mainly explores the research hotspots in the field of alcohol brewing.
Organic acid is one of the main flavor substances in fruit wine. An appropriate amount of organic acids can give fruit wine a smooth taste and have certain antibacterial effects, but the high organic acid content gives people an unpleasant experience, which seriously affects the sensory quality of fruit wine. At present, the high content of organic acids in fruit wine has become one of the important obstacles restricting the further development of the fruit wine brewing industry. The usual method to alleviate excessive acidity is deacidification by chemical or physical processing.
Unfortunately, the methods of chemical or physical are not effective in all cases and may reduce the stability of the wine. However, a biological deacidification method, such as malolactic fermentation (MLF), can significantly reduce the concentration of malic acid and total acidity in wines, without negatively impacting the flavor quality. Yang et al. (2022) found that an Oenococcus oeni GF-2 strain had good MLF performance and high glucosidase activity.
MLF significantly decreased the concentration of organic acids by 29.7% and promoted the accumulation of aromatic esters, higher alcohols, and terpenoids. MLF wine achieved the highest sensory scores for aroma, taste, and overall acceptability [1]. This study indicated that MLF with O. oeni GF-2 had great potential to markedly improve the aroma and taste of commercial pear–kiwifruit wine. Meantime, the biological deacidification method may gradually replace chemical or physical deacidification methods in the future, becoming the main method to reduce the organic acid content in fruit wine.
Chen, Y.; Fu, G.; Wang, J.; Cai, W. Editorial to Special Issue—Food Brewing Technology and Brewing Microorganisms. Foods 2023, 12, 3324.
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