Compostos voláteis em cachaças de alambique produzidas por leveduras selecionadas e por fermentação espontânea

Abstract

The alembic cachaça is a traditional beverage from Brazil and appreciated throughout the world. Currently, only 1% of the cachaça produced in the country is exported, however, some of the producers have great interest in increasing this percentage. Constituted of water and ethanol, the cachaça has been causing concern on the part of the producers, since before the new exigencies of the market, this alcoholic beverage has lost its value by the consumers. One of the barriers to increase exportation is the variation in the chemical composition between harvests, caused, among other reasons, by the precarius control in the fermentation process (difficulty in meeting international standards, technical barriers, non-tariff barriers). The use of selected strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae as starters in the fermentation process is an alternative for obtaining beverage with constant sensory characteristics and superior quality. In this study we evaluated the chemical composition of cachaças produced by spontaneous fermentation and selected yeasts strains. All samples showed concentrations of volatile compounds within the limits recommended by Normative Instruction 13/2005. The beverages produced by selected strains presented lower values of volatile acidity and lower variation when compared to those produced by spontaneous fermentation.