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Fermentation Atlas

Alcoholic drinks from Southern China

Lychee wine (lizhi jiu)荔枝酒

Fresh lychees are peeled, pitted and pressed, and the juice is fermented cold with wine yeast and a little sulphite. Lychee juice alone gives only about 8 % alcohol, so makers either add sugar or freeze out part of the water first, which gives a stronger, fruitier wine of about 16 %. Made in 7 steps over 5.2 months – 5.4 months. The longest step, bottle and age cool, takes 5 months (Wu Y 2011) and runs at 8–10 °C (Wu Y 2011). Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast, added as active dried yeast does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5 monthsMeasured[wu2011]Bottle and age cool
Temperature8–10 °CMeasured[wu2011]Bottle and age cool
Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks5.2 months – 5.4 monthsMore alcoholic drinksMore from China

Recipe

Amounts from a sourcePilot batches from Zhu and colleagues (2018), South China University of Technology and the Guangdong subtropical fruit processing centre; amounts are per litre or kilogram of juice.
Fresh lychee juice · Peeled, pitted and pressed; 144 g/L total sugar and 3.2 g/L total acid in the study batch[zhu2018]
0.3 g per kg of juiceActive dried wine yeast[zhu2018]
1 mL of 6 % sulphurous acid per litreSulphite · Gives 60 mg/L SO2[zhu2018]
Starterdefined-culture (Saccharomyces cerevisiae wine yeast)

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.2 months – 5.4 months

Start
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What changes: Lychees are peeled and the stones taken out

Step 1 of 7
Peel and pit the lychees
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Yeasts

Output: lychee flesh.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Lychee wine is a grape-style fruit wine made with wine yeast, not a Chinese rice wine. The juice is low in sugar and acid, so it is fermented cold and is usually boosted with sugar or by freeze concentration.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Freeze-concentrated, ultra-low-temperature lychee wineJuice freeze-concentrated to about 250 g/L sugar and fermented 25–40 days at 3–10 °C, giving about 12 % alcohol (Zeng Xinan's patented method).
  • Lychee wine fermented with skins and stonesFermented with the shells and stones at 11–16 °C for 10–14 days to draw natural red colour into the wine, then the stones are removed.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Lychee is a fruit of southern China that spoils quickly, so turning it into wine is one way to keep the harvest. Most factories add sugar to the juice; freeze concentration is a newer method for a stronger, fruitier wine.

  1. [zhu2018] Zhu Y.-T., Mi S.-X., Cai Y.-J., Zhao M.-M., Deng X.-L., Zhao Q.-Z. 2018, Comparison of the quality of litchi wines produced through three processes, Modern Food Science and Technology 34(11):185–193, doi:10.13982/j.mfst.1673-9078.2018.11.028paper
  2. [wu2011] Wu Y., Zhu B., Tu C., Duan C., Pan Q. 2011, Generation of volatile compounds in litchi wine during winemaking and short-term bottle storage, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 59(9):4923–4931, doi:10.1021/jf2001876 (abstract)paper
  3. [chen2014] Chen D., Chia J.Y., Liu S.Q. 2014, Impact of addition of aromatic amino acids on non-volatile and volatile compounds in lychee wine fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae MERIT.ferm, International Journal of Food Microbiology 170:12–20 (abstract)paper
  4. [chen2015] Chen D., Yap Z.Y., Liu S.Q. 2015, Evaluation of the performance of Torulaspora delbrueckii, Williopsis saturnus and Kluyveromyces lactis in lychee wine fermentation, International Journal of Food Microbiology 206:45–50 (abstract)paper
  5. [chen2016] Chen D., Liu S.Q. 2016, Transformation of chemical constituents of lychee wine by simultaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentations, Food Chemistry 196:988–995 (abstract)paper
  6. [zeng-cn1840635] Zeng Xinan 2006, Method for preparation of lychee wine by freeze concentration and ultralow temperature fermentation, Chinese patent CN1840635 (abstract)other
  7. [zeng-cn1840636] Zeng Xinan 2006, Method for preparation of lychee wine by lixiviation and fermentation of lychee with shell, Chinese patent CN1840636 (abstract)other
  8. [WP:Lychee wine] Wikipedia, Lychee wine (outline only)wiki