Research And Development Of A Fermented Honey Beverage

Honey had various kinds of nutriments and was applied wildly in cosmetic industry,food industry and pharmacy industry.Few value-added products were researched and developed in China,which is one of the biggest bee product-producing countries.The fermented honey beverage had a great market.A kind of fermented beverage made from cole honey,which was abundant in local of Gansu Province,was developed in this paper.Two strains of yeast were isolated from cole honey by enrichment,plate isolation, screening and honey fermentation test,and were identified primarily as Hanseniaspora sp. and Kloeckera sp.,respectively.The results of growth characteristics studies of Kloeckera sp.4-18 showed that the optimum growing temperature for Kloeckera sp.4-18 was 26℃,and the yeast could grow at the temperature range of 7～37℃.The optimum growing pH for the yeast was 5.4 and it could grow at pH1.6～9.6.The optimum carbohydrate concentration for the yeast growth was 18～26°Brix.It grows well at the 3%(v/v) of alcohol,and grows weakly at 4～7%(v/v) of alcohol,but stopped growth over 10%(v/v) of alcohol.Addition of some nutriment salts and vitamins to the media could enhance the yeast growth.The addition amounts were:(NH₄)₂ SO₄ 1.00 g/L,(NH₄)₃PO₄ 0.50 g/L,K₃PO₄ 0.50 g/L,MgCl₂ 0.20 g/L,NaHSO₄ 0.04 g/L; biotin 0.04 mg/L,pyridoxic acid 1.00mg/L,inositol 10 mg/L,calcium pantothenate 10 mg/L.The fermentation of cole honey at pilot scale to use Kloeckera sp.4-18 indicted that the optimum fermentation conditions were:initial carbohydrate concentration at 22～24°Brix, initial pH 5.2～5.4,seed inoculation 3%to the fermentation broth,fermentation temperature at 16～18℃.The ideal products could be obtained when the cole honey was fermented under these conditions.