Chemical and Microbiological Quality of Ginger Beer with Spontaneous and Inoculated Fermentation.

Abstract

Ginger had been one of the most consumed herbs around Southeast Asia. Ginger beer is one of the beverage innovation with ginger as its raw material. Through fermentation, the functional properties of the ginger are enhanced. But the difference in creating ginger beer with spontaneous fermentation with inoculated fermentation is still unknown. In this research, the total antimicrobial activity as well as the total LAB count, the total antioxidant and phenol content, and the total ethanol content was tested. Ginger beer was prepared with spontaneous fermentation and inoculated fermentation for 6 days in total. Antimicrobial activity of samples was measured by measuring the absorbance with spectrophotometer against E. coli and S. aureus. The phenol content of the sample was determined by using Folin-Ciocalteau’s reagent with sodium carbonate and incubated for 40 minutes at 45°C and the absorbance was measured at 765 nm using the spectrophotometer. The result of yeast addition showed significant effect on the beverage where the antioxidant content, alcohol concentration, antibacterial activity, and total LAB count of the beverage increased in correlation with the concentration of the yeast. Highest phenols and antioxidant content was obtained with 0.7 g/L yeast on the third day.