Project description:Highland barley liquor is a distilled spirit made from highland barley on the Tibetan Plateau, but its alcohol yield is limited by the high fiber content of the raw material. In the field of biomass resources, functional microorganisms are commonly used in pretreatment to degrade cellulose and other substances, improving fermentation output. In this study, we isolated the cellulose-degrading probiotic Lactobacillus delbrueckii GR-8 (CMCase 6.21 U/mL) from the traditional vegetable-based fermented food "Jiangshui" and applied biological pretreatment to the fermentation of highland barley liquor. During pretreatment, probiotics enhanced cellulase and amylase activities in the fermented grains, resulting in a 25% reduction in cellulose content and a 112% increase in free reducing sugar content. The pretreatment significantly altered the microbial community structure, enhancing microbial diversity. After distillation, alcohol yield increased by 3.5%, and total acid and ester contents rose by 25% and 23%, respectively. Pyrazine compounds increased by 1290%, while higher alcohols like nonanol, phenylethanol, and hexanol decreased. The treated liquor caused less harm to mice, who showed improved memory, motor skills, and lower oxidative liver damage. This study demonstrates that biological pretreatment enhances both fermentation and the quality of Chinese spirits.
Project description:we collected Prepared Daqu samples from 6 different production cycles of the Kweichow Moutai Liquor and characterized their microbial community and function by label-free quantitative metaproteomic methods.
Project description:This project characterizes the temporal dynamics of microbial communities and functional potential in strong-flavor Daqu (a traditional Chinese fermentation starter) across a 4-month storage period.
Project description:Daqu, an important fermentation starter for the production of Chinese liquor, as used in the current study included traditional Daqu and fortified Daqu inoculated with Bacillus velezensis and Bacillus subtilis. To evaluate the effect of fortified Daqu on strong-flavor liquor production, the differences of microbial communities among three inoculation patterns of fermented grains (FG) were analyzed by the Illumina MiSeq platform. A higher relative abundance of dominant genera including Bacillus, Lactococcus, Aspergillus, and Candida, and lower relative abundance of Lactobacillus, were observed in FG50, in which mixed Daqu (traditional: fortified Daqu = 1: 1, w/w, 50% fortified Daqu) was used as the starter. Then, volatile compounds of their distillations were also examined by HS-SPME-GC-MS. The results showed that the contents of skeleton flavor components, mainly including important esters and aromatic compounds, were higher in the corresponding liquor L50, which distillated from FG50. Moreover, most esters mainly positively correlated with Lactobacillus and Candida in the bottom layer of FG fermented with 50% fortified Daqu (FG50-B). Aromatic compounds were strongly positively correlated with Bacillus and Aspergillus in the middle layer of FG with 50% fortified Daqu used (FG50-M). In particular, hexyl hexanoate showed a positive correlation with higher abundances of Ruminococcus in the FG with addition of 100% fortified Daqu (FG100). This study observed microbial compositions in the FG with fortified Daqu addition, and it further revealed the correlations between pivotal microbes and main flavor compounds. These results may help to develop effective strategies to regulate microbes for the brewing process and further improve the flavors of Chinese liquor.