The Influence of Treatment of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Inoculum with a Magnetic Field on Subsequent Grape Must Fermentation

2 Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Measurement and Robotics, Tržaška 25, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia __________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract 168 hour old Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast cells on Petri dishes were exposed to a homogenous static magnetic field of 140 mT for periods of 24, 48 or 72 hours and then used as inoculum for the alcoholic fermentation of Malvasia grape must. The exposure to the magnetic field improved the fermentation process kinetics. Biomass and ethanol yields of fermentations inoculated with treated inoculum were higher than those in the control fermentation, which was inoculated with an untreated inoculum. Treatment of the inoculum with the magnetic field also led to faster consumption of glucose and higher levels of acetaldehyde, 1-propanol, 2-butanol, isoamil alcohol and lactic acid, and to decreased, but there was no effect on consumption of tartaric acid and malic acid.