Yeast Production of Ethanol: Sucrose vs. Glucose

Abstract

Acme Brewing and Baking (AB&B) are looking for ways to maximize or minimize the products that come from yeast growth, and determine what makes yeast grow to its maximum potential. By creating holding chambers with yeast and growth formula, along with various types and amounts of sugars, we were able to collect information regarding which sugar maximized ethanol production. Our group decided to use glucose and sucrose, while manipulating the amounts of each sugar used (0.8 grams, 1.4 grams, and 2.0 grams). Following our experiment, our data supported our hypothesis that sucrose would yield greater amounts of ethanol production than glucose. This shows that in order to obtain the greatest outputs from yeast cultures, it is most effective to use sucrose over another commonly used sugar, glucose..