A Palm Wine-Derived Yeast Consortium Overcomes the Ethanol-Aroma Trade-off in Honey Mead Fermentation

¹Okogu Sabinus Chukwuka, ¹Aniaku Vincent N., ¹Anichukwu Nwankwo Onyinye and ²Ada Ikeyi A.P.

¹Department of Applied Microbiology and Brewing, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu Nigeria

²Department of Biochemistry Institute of Management and Technology, IMT, Enugu, Nigeria

                                                                         ABSTRACT

Background: mead remains an underexploited fermented beverage in sub-Saharan Africa despite the regional abundance of honey, and commercial Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains often yield meads that lack aromatic complexity and regional identity. Palm wine harbours a diverse indigenous yeast community that has rarely been evaluated as a fermentation resource for honey must.

Objective: to isolate and molecularly identify yeast species from palm wine and to compare their fermentation performance, physicochemical quality and sensory acceptability, singly and as a mixed consortium, during honey must fermentation.

Methods: yeasts isolated from Elaeis guineensis and Raphia hookeri palm wine were identified by lactophenol cotton blue staining and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing. Honey must (16 to 20 °Brix) was fermented for 14 days at 30 °C with Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain YCH497, Meyerozyma guilliermondii strain L11-2, Candida rugosa strain UY, and a three-species consortium, followed by 30 days of maturation. Fermentation kinetics, must-Brix and temperature optimisation, matured-wine physicochemistry, sensory quality (nine-point hedonic scale, n = 10) and bacteriological safety were assessed by one-way ANOVA with Tukey or Duncan post-hoc separation.

Results: the consortium fermented fastest and most completely, reaching 12.22 ± 0.02% alcohol by volume (ABV) and 0.25 °Brix residual sugar by day 14, against 11.16 ± 0.02% ABV for S. cerevisiae and 8.27% and 6.82% ABV for C. rugosa and M. guilliermondii respectively (all p < 0.001). This ranking held across must-Brix (10 to 20 °Brix) and temperature (10 to 30 °C) optimisation. Contrary to the conventional trade-off between fermentation vigour and sensory complexity, the consortium also received the highest sensory scores for colour, aroma, taste, mouthfeel and overall acceptability (8.7 ± 0.48 of 9), and matured wines from every treatment were free of coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp.

Conclusion: a three-species consortium of palm wine-derived yeasts simultaneously maximised fermentation efficiency and sensory quality of honey mead, indicating that palm wine is an underused reservoir of complementary indigenous yeasts for value-added mead production in tropical honey-producing regions.

Keywords: mead; honey must fermentation; palm wine yeast; yeast consortium; Meyerozyma guilliermondii; non-Saccharomyces yeast

CITE AS: Okogu Sabinus Chukwuka, Aniaku Vincent N., Anichukwu Nwankwo Onyinye and Ada Ikeyi A.P. (2026). A Palm Wine-Derived Yeast Consortium Overcomes the Ethanol-Aroma Trade-off in Honey Mead Fermentation. IDOSR JOURNAL OF BIOCHEMISTRY, BIOTECHNOLOGY AND ALLIED FIELDS 11(2):31-40.  https://doi.org/10.59298/IDOSR/JBBAF/2026/1123140