Paddycake, Paddycake, Baker’s Yeast: Relationships between Ethanol production and varying sugars in baking yeast

Abstract

Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or more commonly known as baker’s yeast, is a single celled microorganism in the fungus kingdom. Yeast is a common ingredient used in the production of different products including bread, biofuels, alcohol and many other things. Sugar is commonly used in accordance with yeast to produce carbon dioxide which causes the dough to rise. Varying types of sugar were used in this investigation to determine, when combined with yeast, which will produce the highest amounts of ethanol. The ethanol production was determined by an ethanol output probe and a logger graph. Trials were conducted in conjunction with yeast using no sugar, dextrose, and sucrose. Four trials took place for each variation of sugar. We hypothesized if the structure of the sugar added to the yeast is more complex, then there will be a higher production of ethanol by the yeast. Based on the data collected, this proved to be incorrect. By the end of the trials, Dextrose had the highest production of ethanol. The most likely explanation for this is that the monosaccharide dissolved quicker in the mixture allowing more time to produce more ethanol gas.