Behaviour of ethyl caproate during the production and distillation of ethyl caproate‐rich rice shochu

To increase the popularity of rice shochu, a process was developed to produce ethyl caproate‐rich rice shochu by adding a cultured broth of a caproic acid‐producing bacterial (CAPB) consortium to the fermentation. When the CAPB consortium containing fermented mash was subjected to vacuum distillation, the distillation efficiency of ethyl caproate was up to ~300%, while the distillation efficiencies of the other flavour compounds and ethanol were <100%. The behaviour of ethyl caproate during the production and distillation of an ethyl caproate‐rich rice shochu was investigated and the results showed that ethyl caproate was synthesized by Saccharomyces cerevisiae during the shochu production process, and that some of the ethyl caproate synthesized was secreted into the medium. Ethyl caproate in the medium evaporated easily and was transferred to the distillate when distilled. The increase in ethyl caproate after distillation was mainly derived from the release of the intracellular ethyl caproate, with negligible input from the chemical esterification of caproic acid and ethanol. During vacuum distillation, although few yeast cells were disrupted, secretion of the intracellular ethyl caproate was more efficient owing to the increase in temperature, allowing the distillation efficiency of ethyl caproate to be >100%. Copyright © 2016 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling