Yeast Fermentation: Ethanol Production with Corn Sugar

Abstract

Yeast is important in many things, more commonly bread and brewing beer. The fermentation of yeast is very sensitive and relies on many different things, ranging from the type of sugar to the heat. When researching yeast, we learned that sucrose is the common sugar used when cooking with yeast. We tested the effects of corn sugar in place of sucrose in a yeast solution in 2 different trials, and compared them to a controlled solution which contained the same mixture, with sucrose in place of corn sugar. We predicted that the solutions containing corn sugar would produce more ethanol than the solution containing sucrose. Once tested, this appeared to be correct. Our first experimental trial showed that unless heated above room temperature, our solution was not going to produce ethanol or data to our liking. Once we heated the following trials, we were shown that heat was a great factor in the ethanol production of our yeast. In the end, this experiment was successful and could ideally effect yeast production in the future.