A novel alcoholic beverage developed from shiitake stipe extract and cane sugar with various Saccharomyces strains

The stipe of shiitake, a disposable byproduct in mushroom industry, was applied as a nitrogen source in alcoholic fermentation. Four yeast strains were screened by evaluating their fermentative efficiency and ethanol tolerance. The results showed that shiitake stipe extract could enable yeast cell proliferation and be sequent to good performance of sugar utilization and ethanol production, depended on strains. The ethanol production (mL/100 mL) of 13.7 +/- 0.8, 14.1 +/- 0.9, 11.9 +/- 0.1 and 10.9 +/- 0.3 was obtained from strains 20262, 22236, 21686 and 21992, respectively, at the end of fermentation. Ethanol tolerance of strain in term of glucose utilization rate was more consistent with the extent of ethanol production during fermentation than that of survival rate. Therefore, the evaluation of glucose utilization rate in external ethanol condition might help establish a simple and quick method to screen the strains capable of high ethanol production. The shiitake stipe alcoholic beverage would also provide comparable consumer acceptances with a commercial Taiwanese white wine. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.