Effects of Daqu inoculated with Aspergillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisiae on microbial community, aroma compounds and physicochemical parameters of fermented grains during the brewing process of Chinese special‐flavor Baijiu

The use of bio-augmented Daqu is considered a positive way to improve the microbial community and physicochemical parameters of fermented grains, thus affecting the flavor and quality of Baijiu. In this study, the effects of bio-augmented Daqu inoculated with Aspergillus niger NCUF413.1 and Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCUF304.1 on the microbial community, aroma compounds, and physicochemical parameters of fermented grains during special-flavor Baijiu brewing were studied.Compared with the control group (CG), the utilization of starch and production of ethanol in the inoculated group (IG) were increased by 3.55% and 12.59%, respectively. And the use of bio-augmented Daqu obviously changed the bacterial communities. For example, Kroppenstedsia was the dominant bacterial genus (the relative abundance was about 22%) in the CG while Lactobacillus was the main dominant genus (the relative abundance was more than 30%) in the IG on days 20-30. Lactobacillus showed a significant positive correlation with the aroma compounds. Therefore, the use of bio-augmented Daqu increased the contents of aroma compounds, such as ethyl heptanoate and ethyl hexanoate.The addition of bio-augmented Daqu with A. niger and S. cerevisiae could change the microbial communities, resulting in an increase of the yield of ethanol and the contents of aroma compounds of fermented grains, thus improving the quality of Baijiu. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.