Lin Bin, Tang Jie, Yang Qiang, Su Zhixin, Zhu Liping, Li Qun, Jiang Wei, Zhang Long, Liu Yuancai, Chen Shenxi
Hubei Provincial Key Lab for Quality and Safety of Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Food, Jing Brand Research Institute, Jing Brand Co., Ltd., Daye, 435100, People's Republic of China.
World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2022 Jul 21;38(10):166. doi: 10.1007/s11274-022-03353-x.
Light-aroma-type Baijiu is a Chinese distilled alcoholic beverage produced from fermented sorghum. Microbial composition and dynamics during Baijiu production have a great influence on the flavor and quality of Chinese Baijiu. However, the microbial changes that occur during brewing of Xiaoqu Baijiu are poorly understood. In this study, the microbial composition of light-aroma-type Xiaoqu Baijiu at the saccharification and fermentation stages was investigated to explore microbial dynamics and their effects on aroma components using high-throughput sequencing and gas chromatography-flame ionization detection (GC-FID). Rhizopus, Pichia, Wickerhamomyces, Saccharomyces, Acinetobacter, Lactobacillus, and Weissella constituted the core microbes for Xiaoqu Baijiu production. Microbial succession during brewing could be divided into two phases: at the saccharification and early fermentation stages (F-0d to F-4d), Rhizopus and Acinetobacter were identified as the predominant microbes, accounting for 78.2-90.8% and 53.9-89.5% of the fungal and bacterial communities, respectively, whereas at the middle and late stages of fermentation (F-5d to F-14d), the abundance of Pichia, Wickerhamomyces, Saccharomyces, and Lactobacillus increased. Redundancy analysis (RDA) and Mantel tests indicated that the water, amino acid nitrogen, acid, and reducing sugar contents were significantly correlated with the fungal and bacterial communities in grains (p < 0.05). Pichia, Rhizopus, Saccharomyces, and Wickerhamomyces, especially Saccharomyces, were closely related to the contents of major alcohols, esters and aldehydes, and these microbes had an important functional role in the formation of Xiaoqu Baijiu flavor. This work provides insights into the microbial succession that occurs during brewing of light-aroma-type Xiaoqu Baijiu and the microbial contribution to flavor, which have potential for optimizing production and enhancing the flavor of Baijiu.
清香型白酒是一种以发酵高粱为原料生产的中国蒸馏酒。白酒生产过程中的微生物组成和动态变化对中国白酒的风味和品质有很大影响。然而，小曲白酒酿造过程中发生的微生物变化却知之甚少。在本研究中，采用高通量测序和气相色谱-火焰离子化检测（GC-FID）技术，对清香型小曲白酒在糖化和发酵阶段的微生物组成进行了研究，以探索微生物动态变化及其对香气成分的影响。根霉、毕赤酵母、威克汉姆酵母、酿酒酵母、不动杆菌、乳酸杆菌和魏斯氏菌构成了小曲白酒生产的核心微生物。酿造过程中的微生物演替可分为两个阶段：在糖化和发酵早期阶段（F-0d至F-4d），根霉和不动杆菌被确定为优势微生物，分别占真菌和细菌群落的78.2-90.8%和53.9-89.5%，而在发酵中后期阶段（F-5d至F-14d），毕赤酵母、威克汉姆酵母、酿酒酵母和乳酸杆菌的丰度增加。冗余分析（RDA）和Mantel检验表明，水、氨基酸态氮、酸和还原糖含量与谷物中的真菌和细菌群落显著相关（p < 0.05）。毕赤酵母、根霉、酿酒酵母和威克汉姆酵母，尤其是酿酒酵母，与主要醇类、酯类和醛类的含量密切相关，这些微生物在小曲白酒风味形成中具有重要的功能作用。这项工作为清香型小曲白酒酿造过程中发生的微生物演替以及微生物对风味的贡献提供了见解，这对于优化生产和提升白酒风味具有潜在意义。
