Essay On The Fermentation Of The Marula Tree

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Introduction
Group members
• Leane van Zyl
• Amy Schofield
• Daniel Buchner
• Gaëlle Robertson
We were required to conduct an experiment that explores and analyses the fermentation of the fruits of the Marula tree. We produced two bottles (750ml each) of high quality Marula wine. Our first bottle of wine (Valley Wine) was our control and our second bottle of wine (Maritchi) contained our changed variable.After reading up on various wine recipes, we noticed that many suggested the use of pectinase in the fermentation process. We thus decided to use the addition of litchi pulp and juice as our changed variable in our second bottle of wine because we wanted to test if it would act like a natural pectic enzyme halfway through the fermentation process of the Marula wine. Both wines were assessed by a panel of judges on colour, clarity, bouquet, taste and presentation.
Literature review
Fermentation is a process that involves the breakdown of glucose into pyruvate in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic conditions). Alcohol fermentation takes place in plant and yeast cells where glucose is converted into carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol in the presence of heat energy. Once these two products are released, the yeast/plant cells die when there is excess alcohol in the solution. (Mann, 2013)
Various factors should be carefully controlled for the best possible reaction outcome. If the temperature of the surroundings is too high or too low, this will kill the yeast. The temperature needs to be approximately between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius for the yeast to thrive. If too much sugar is added, yeast activity will not start or will cease after time. (Pambianchi, 2009) It will then only be able to tolerate a low concentration of alcohol. The solut...

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... variable provided no difference to the original wines and did not produce a substitute for pectic acid. This may be because the lychees did not have sufficient time to ferment as they were only added one week before filtration and thus didn’t fully break down to release pectinase. The pectic enzyme can improve a wine in taste and colour immensely (Kraus, 2010) so therefore instead of a natural substitute, commercial pectinase should be bought and used in the beginning of this experiment instead.

Conclusion
Therefore the hypothesis was proved wrong because the lychees did not provide any improvement to the marula wine with the exception of slightly better aroma in the Maritchi wine. The lychees were unable to produce pectic enzymes during the last stage of the fermentation process and therefore did not provide any colour or taste change to the original marula wine.

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