Loading...
6 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
- Mead production: tradition versus modernityPublication . Ramalhosa, Elsa; Gomes, Teresa; Pereira, Ana Paula; Dias, Teresa; Estevinho, Leticia M.Honey is a natural product with recognized physical and chemical properties, which contribute to its biological activity. However, honey is currently being sold at low prices, making it imperative to find alternatives to make apiculture a viable national enterprise. One of these alternatives could be mead production. Despite the excellent properties of honey, mead production faces several problems, namely, delays and “pouts” fermentations, lack of product uniformity, and production of yeast off-flavors. Many factors might be related with these problems, such as honey variety, temperature, medium composition (vitamin and nitrogen content), fermentative yeast, and pH. Due to all these factors, mead production has decreased over the years. To overcome this situation, more research is needed to optimize the production of this beverage. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of previous research on mead production. It will focus on honey characterization and mead production. The first section covers honey composition and the way this affects honey properties, as well as important parameters that are indicators of honey quality. The second section discusses mead production, including fermentative microorganisms, fermentation conditions, and required postfermentation adjustments and maturation conditions. The final section focuses on the problems that must be surpassed and what the future holds for mead production.
- Mead production: comparison of different production scales (preliminary results)Publication . Gomes, Teresa; Barradas, Carla; Dias, Teresa; Andrade, João Verdial; Morais, Jorge Sá; Ramalhosa, Elsa; Estevinho, Leticia M.Mead production represents a possible economic alternative to honey producers that intend to obtain honey products with surplus value. From that the present work aims to study the influence of using different production scales on the quality of the final mead obtained and on the process performance. Increasing the production scale almost ten times (1.5 to 20 L), some differences were observed. Maximum specific growth rates equal to 0.045 and 0.038 h-1 were obtained for fermentations carried out at 1.5 and 20 L, respectively. The time course of glucose and glycerol were similar for both production scales. Nevertheless, slight differences at the end of the fermentations were observed for fructose and acetic acid. In relation to ethanol, a higher final concentration was found in the pilot-scale, resulting in a higher ethanol yield. In conclusion, these preliminary results are a good promise to local honey producers who intent to obtain large-productions of mead.
- Mead production: comparison of different production scales (preliminary results)Publication . Gomes, Teresa; Barradas, Carla; Dias, Teresa; Andrade, João Verdial; Morais, Jorge Sá; Ramalhosa, Elsa; Estevinho, Leticia M.Mead production represents a possible economic alternative to honey producers that intend to obtain honey products with surplus value. From that the present work aims to study the influence of using different production scales on the quality of the final mead obtained and on the process performance. Increasing the production scale almost ten times (1.5 to 20 L), some differences were observed. Maximum specific growth rates equal to 0.045 and 0.038 h-1 were obtained for fermentations carried out at 1.5 and 20 L, respectively. The time course of glucose and glycerol were similar for both production scales. Nevertheless, slight differences at the end of the fermentations were observed for fructose and acetic acid. In relation to ethanol, a higher final concentration was found in the pilot-scale, resulting in a higher ethanol yield. In conclusion, these preliminary results are a good promise to local honey producers who intent to obtain large-productions of mead.
- Optimization of mead production using response surface methodologyPublication . Gomes, Teresa; Barradas, Carla; Dias, Teresa; Andrade, João Verdial; Morais, Jorge Sá; Ramalhosa, Elsa; Estevinho, Leticia M.The main aim of the present work was to optimize mead production using Response Surface Methodology. The effects of temperature (x1: 20–30 ºC) and nutrients concentration (x2: 60–120 g/hL) on mead quality, concerning the final concentrations of glucose (Y1), fructose (Y2), ethanol (Y3), glycerol (Y4) and acetic acid (Y5), were studied. Twelve operational conditions were tested. No delays and moods were observed during fermentations. The second order polynomial models determined produced satisfactory fittings of the experimental data with regard to glucose (R2= 0.646, p = 0.001), ethanol (R2= 0.741,p = 0.049), glycerol (R2= 0.899, p = 0.002), fructose (R2= 0.902, p = 0.033) and acetic acid (R2= 0.913,p = 0.001). The optimum extraction conditions determined in order to maximize the combined responses were 24 ºC and a nutrients concentration of 0.88 g/L. The mead produced under these conditions had the following characteristics: ethanol concentration of 10.2%, acetic acid 0.54 g/L, glycerol 7.8 g/L, glucose 1.8 g/L and fructose 2.5 g/L. These values were in agreement with the predicted and were within the safe limit established for acetic acid and the recommended range for glycerol. Furthermore, the residual sug- ars concentration was also low, decreasing the possibility of occurring undesirable refermentations.
- Mead production: selection and characterization assays of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strainsPublication . Pereira, Ana Paula; Dias, Teresa; Andrade, João Verdial; Ramalhosa, Elsa; Estevinho, Leticia M.Mead is a traditional drink, which results from the alcoholic fermentation of diluted honey carried out by yeasts. However, when it is produced in a homemade way, mead producers find several problems, namely, the lack of uniformity in the final product, delayed and arrested fermentations, and the production of “off-flavours” by the yeasts. These problems are usually associated with the inability of yeast strains to respond and adapt to unfavourable and stressful growth conditions. The main objectives of this work were to evaluate the capacity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains, isolated from honey of the Trás-os-Montes (Northeast Portugal), to produce mead. Five strains from honey, as well as one laboratory strain and one commercial wine strain, were evaluated in terms of their fermentation performance under ethanol, sulphur dioxide and osmotic stress. All the strains showed similar behaviour in these conditions. Two yeasts strains isolated from honey and the commercial wine strain were further tested for mead production, using two different honeys (a dark and a light honey), enriched with two supplements (one commercial and one developed by the research team), as fermentation media. The results obtained in this work show that S. cerevisiae strains isolated from honey, are appropriate for mead production. However it is of extreme importance to take into account the characteristics of the honey, and supplements used in the fermentation medium formulation, in order to achieve the best results in mead production.
- Influence of sweetness and ethanol content on mead acceptabilityPublication . Gomes, Teresa; Dias, Teresa; Cadavez, Vasco; Andrade, João Verdial; Morais, Jorge Sá; Ramalhosa, Elsa; Estevinho, Leticia M.Mead is a traditional alcoholic beverage obtained by fermenting mead wort; however, its production still remains frequently an empirical exercise. Different meads can be produced, depending on fermentation conditions. Nevertheless, to date few studies have been developed on factors that may influence mead quality. The main objective of this work was to study the influence of sweetness and ethanol content on mead acceptability. Different meads were produced with two sweetness levels (sweet and dry meads) and three ethanol contents (18, 20, 22% (v/v)), adjusted by brandy addition. Afterwards, meads acceptability was evaluated by sensory analysis through a consumers’ panel (n=108) along with chemical analysis by HPLC-RID of glucose, fructose, ethanol, glycerol and acetic acid. The sweet (75 g glucose+fructose/L) and dry (23 g glucose+fructose/L) meads presented glycerol contents equal to 5.10±0.54 and 5.96±0.95 g/L, respectively, that were desirable since glycerol improves mead quality. Low concentrations of acetic acid were determined (0.46±0.08 and 0.57±0.09 g/L), avoiding the vinegar off-character. Concerning sensory analysis, the alcohol content of mead had no effect on the sensory attributes studied, namely, aroma, sweetness, flavour, alcohol feeling and general appreciation. Regarding sweetness, the “sweet meads” were the most appreciated by the consumers (score of 5.4±2.56), whereas the “dry meads” (score of 2.7±2.23) showed low acceptability. In conclusion, this work revealed that sweetness is a sensory key attribute for mead acceptance by the consumers, whereas ethanol content (18 to 22% (v/v)) is not.