What defines the type of the fermentation (alcohol/lacto)?
What defines the outcome of the fermentation? You put the veggie, fruit in an anaerobic environment and you either get "Alcohol fermentation" (ethanol) or "Lacto fermentation" (lactic acid). What is the different input to make the different output?
I know the key difference is the saccharomyces and lactobacillus. But what decides which of them start the party?
Best Answer
The factors that decide what starts the party as you say are the starter and the environment.
The yeast and bacteria are already present. If one of them is in the majority, then they'll get a head start without any intervention. It's just survival of the fittest.
But for the most part, fermenters intervene. We add starter cultures for one, and we control the sugar, salinity, and oxygen for another.
Yeast are everywhere. They love sugar and oxygen, but don't need oxygen. Yeast ferments typically start with sugar and oxygen. Lactobacilli are strictly anaerobic, and can thrive at higher salinity and acidity than yeast, so a ferment that calls for salt is often lactobacillic. Acetobacter feed on the alcohol produced by yeast but require oxygen.
So if you want alcohol, add yeast starter, sugar, and let air in at first. Then cut the air off before acetobacter start taking off.
If you want vinegar, leave your alcohol ferment open to the air.
If you want a lacto-ferment, add a starter (or not. These are easy.), salt, and no air.
That's basically it.
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Quick Answer about "What defines the type of the fermentation (alcohol/lacto)?"
Lacto-fermentationWhat type of fermentation is alcoholic fermentation?
Alcoholic fermentation, also referred to as ethanol fermentation, is a biological process by which sugar is converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Yeasts are responsible for this process, and oxygen is not necessary, which means that alcoholic fermentation is an anaerobic process.What determines the product of fermentation to be either alcohol or lactic acid?
The main difference between lactic acid and alcoholic fermentation is that lactic acid fermentation produces lactic acid molecules from pyruvate whereas alcoholic fermentation produces ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Alcoholic fermentation of yeast is used in the food industry to produce wine and beer.What is lactic alcohol fermentation?
Lactic acid (i.e., lactate) fermentation occurs in some strains of bacteria and in skeletal muscle and produces lactic acid (i.e., lactate). Alcoholic fermentation occurs in yeast and produces ethanol and carbon dioxide.Is alcoholic fermentation aerobic or anaerobic?
Because yeasts perform this conversion in the absence of oxygen, alcoholic fermentation is considered an anaerobic process.Making Alcohols By Fermentation \u0026 From Ethane | Organic Chemistry | Chemistry | FuseSchool
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Answer 2
Alcohols exhibit rapid broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against vegetative bacteria, fermentation is the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.
You are not fermenting with vinegar or alcohol, you are pickling and preserving though, but you need to allow microbial activity to happen for fermentation to happen. That is in essence what fermentation is, it is allowing microbial activity to happen for some purpose.
The issue is confused because they are both done to food to preserve and prepare food.
This is an important distinction to make
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