2018

THE ABILITY OF YEAST

TO FERMENT DIFFERENT
SUGARS
FERMENTATION LAB REPORT
MULLEN, IAN
Abstract:

One of the most common beverages consumed around the world, alcohol. Within the

process of making this enticing drink, comes from the tiny microorganism yeast. These single-

celled organism, when reacted with sugars produce CO2. This process results in breads rising,

and juices to ferment into alcohol. Within the experiment completed in our lab, we tested the

yeasts ability to breakdown and ferment different types of common sugars.

Introduction:

The study of yeast is something that affects us every day. From the alcohol you may

drink, to the delicious pastries you just bought at the bakery. Yeast is used in a variety of ways to

make foods and drinks. How does this happen? Well within this experiment we are testing the

effects of different types of common sugars on yeast. When these yeast use sugars as a source of

energy, the result is CO2. When this occurs, fermentation is happening. Because of this

fermentation, bread rises, and fruit juices can be turned into alcohol.

One study being done today has to do exactly with the fermentation of fruits into alcohol.

This study is trying to increase the amount of quality wines produced by fruits, with producing

less waste. A large portion of the fruit isn’t used in the fermentation process, and researchers are

trying to find a way to use more of the fruit in these processes. Based on the experiments done by

these researchers, they found that orange juice produces the most alcohol when reacted with a

particular yeast strain (Okunowo, et. Al).

Methods:

For this experiment we were testing the abilities of yeast to ferment a monosaccharide

and the disaccharide counterpart. We hypothesized that the yeast would ferment the disaccharide

at a much slower rate than the monosaccharide because of the size of both molecules. Within this
experiment the dependent variables were those of the amount of CO2 produced by the yeast,

while the independent variable was the different types of sugars we used. Depending on the size

of the CO2 bubble that was produced would tell us how much sugar the yeast was able to

ferment. The sugars that were used within this experiment were the monosaccharides; glucose,

fructose, and galactose. To compare the abilities of yeast to ferment different sugars, the

disaccharides Maltose, Sucrose, and Lactose were also fermented. Each of these three sugars are

the disaccharide form of the basic monosaccharides used. To begin the experiment, 8mL of yeast

was placed into 6 labeled 25mL test tubes. After each tube contained the allotted amount of

yeast, each of the sugars being tested were placed within one of the corresponding test tubes.

Then each tube was filled to the top with water and flipped upside down into a larger test tube.

Because we placed the test tube containing the yeast and sugar inside a larger tube and inverted

it, it would allow us to measure the amount of fermentation that took place. This is because the

amount of CO2 that is produced due to fermentation will push the water out of the bottom of the

smaller test tube and create a bubble at the top of the tube. All 6 tubes were then incubated in a

37C water bath for an hour to allow fermentation to take place. At the end of the hour the tubes

were removed from the bath, and the CO2 bubble that was produced was measured. We then

converted the bubble size to mm of CO2 produced per hour. This allowed us to calculate the

final amount of sugar (fermentation reaction) that took place by the yeast for each type of sugar

molecule.

Results:

In this experiment on yeast fermentation of different sugars, the sugar that was fermented

the fastest and the most based on figure 1 was the glucose-glucose disaccharide. However, based

on the standard errors the argument that the glucose-fructose disaccharide could also have been
fermented just as fast and the most. The sugar with the lowest standard error and the one that was

fermented the least and the slowest was the lactose monosaccharide.

Figure 1: Yeast's ability to ferment types of sugars

Figure 1 graphs the data of how much carbon dioxide was produced by the yeast with

each type of sugar. The amount of carbon dioxide produced coincides with the fermentation rate

of each sugar. Based on our hypothesis we would’ve expected to see the monosaccharides

fermented faster resulting in larger CO2 bubbles to form. However, based on the graph and the

data that was collected, the yeast fermented the monosaccharides slower than the disaccharides.

A similar experiment done by other researchers were testing the ability of yeast to remove types

of sugar from a solution. Their results were similar to ours, whereas depending on the types of

sugar the yeasts were either more or less active (Yoon, et. Al).

Discussion:

Based on the data that was collected and observed throughout the experiment, we can

infer that the yeast fermented the more complex disaccharides faster and more than the simpler

monosaccharide counterparts. From this data we can conclude that our hypothesis is rejected,
and that a new and better hypothesis can be rewritten to better adapt for these findings. Since the

yeast fermented the disaccharides more than the monosaccharides, one argument could be made

that since this was the data produced, yeast can easily break the bonds between the two sugars

and utilize the energy released faster than trying to break down one large singular molecule.

Literature Cited:

Okunowo, W., Okotore, R., Osuntoki, A. (2005) The alcoholic fermentation efficiency of
indigenous yeast strains of different origin on orange juice. African Journal of Biochemistry
4:1290-1296.

Yoon, S., Mukerjea, R., Robert, J. (2003) Specificity of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) in
removing carbohydrates by fermentation. Carbohydrate research 338:1127-1132.