State-of-the-art advantages and drawbacks on the application of vibrational spectroscopy to monitor alcoholic fermentation (beer and wine)

© 2016 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.Wine production is directly linked with the monitoring of the fermentation and critical fermentation parameters such as total sugars and ethanol concentration, and the production of CO2. Commonly used sensors applied in the wine industry to monitor wine fermentation are those based in single sensors such as temperature probes and manual density measurements (e.g., specific gravity). These sensors are used several times per day and have been the only source of data available from which the stage of the fermentation and the evolution rate could be monitored. Therefore, an ideal method for fermentation process control and monitoring should enable a direct rapid, precise, and accurate determination of several target compounds, with minimal or no sample preparation and reagent consumption. This article reviews the state of the art in the applications of both near and mid infrared spectroscopy to monitor beer and wine fermentation.