Isolation and Screening of Yeast Strains from Fruit Crops of Hassan District for Grape Wine Production

Yeasts are widely distributed on various plant parts and more localized especially on fruits. Yeasts were isolated from the fruit surface by using Yeast Extract Malt Extract Agar medium. ATotally of 5 yeast strains were isolated from isolated from the Sapota, Cardamom, Carambola and Ficus fruits which were collected from Hassan district. For all isolated yeast strains gas production, different carbon source assimilation and efficacy for higher alcohol production by use of grape juice were tested. All the yeast isolates produced gas and assimilated Glucose and Dextrose sugars. Among all the maximum alcohol content was recorded in yeast strain MZF-2 (6.25%) followed by FMF-1 (5.72%) and least was recorded in control (3.12%). This study showed that the isolated yeast strains like MZF-2 performed better with all parameters studied and better wine production by maximum alcohol content.