Diet wine for the skinny moms: The use of glucose substitutes in yeast fermentation to reduce the caloric load of wine

Abstract

Yeast is used around the world in various products, including wine. Wine often is an obstacle in weight loss programs, as many people prefer to have a glass or three of wine with dinner. Wine is a very calorie dense beverage, if the density of calories can be reduced, it may help people lose weight while still enjoying their wine with dinner. Through the testing of fermentation rates with glucose sources that are lower in calories than traditional glucose, an opportunity has arisen in the wine market for “diet” wine. The application of lower calorie fermentation in alcohol applications would enable an opening in the market for people who are counting calories but still want to indulge in their daily glass. Using glucose as a control, other types of monosaccharides were used to substitute the glucose in yeast fermentation and measured for the rate of ethanol production in the reaction. Our hypothesis was rejected; we predicted that the control would produce more ethanol because it would not have to go through additional steps to enter fermentation. This shows that glucose substitutes that are lower in calories can replace glucose as an aid in fermentation, which can then be used in the fermentation of grapes to produce diet wine.