Since no one could solve my last puzzle: Fermentation

[Tamsicle]

Does anyone know why the alcohol content of wine rarely exceeds 17%? The book indicates that it may have something to do with respiration...? I feel as though the answer to this should be obvious. Thanks.

[canalon]

Does anyone know why the alcohol content of wine rarely exceeds 17%? The book indicates that it may have something to do with respiration...? I feel as though the answer to this should be obvious. Thanks.

Alcohol is a poison, most of the microorganism cannot grow anymore at much lower concentration. It is even supposed that the ability to ferment sugar into alcohol by yeast is a way to outcompete other species. But with alcohol levels too high, even yeast growth is inhibited.

HTH

Patrick

[mith]

Which is why liquor has to be distilled to achieve the higher proofs seen on some bottles of whiskey/bourbon.

[drstewart_ny]

What???/
ETOH Alcohol is not a poison. It is a corn or grain, or more rarely a potato based distillation. Too much of it can intoxicate, way too much of can render a being devoid of certain functions.
Snake venom is a poison. Foreign proteins are a poison. Just because you can treat something in the end like a poison does not mean it is a poison.
There are certain organisms within the body that do respire sugars as alcohols, namely yeasts. Some unfortunates among us that are sensitive to yeast infestations must watch their sugar intake. There have been cases where people who have not drunk a drop of alcohol are studied as being intoxicated by sugar intake. Tam is right.
Respiration has everything to do with everything. Some pathogens respire sugars, some pathogens respire pyruvates, some carbon dioxide, some nitrogen, some methane, some even sulphur dioxide. Did you ever wonder why the gas you passed smelled a certain way?/
Wine percentage and any other percentage of ETOH is econimically based. By definition, wine must be a certain percentage, sherry some other, and whiskies, rums, and gins, some other That's all. You can take the percentage of alcohol and times it by two and have the proof.
Isopropyl alcohol, now that's poisonous.

[Tamsicle]

I really don't understand that....I thought it might have to do with a limiting factor or an accumulation of product or something like that.

[biostudent84]

I'm afraid Patrick is right on this one. All alcohols are indeed poison. Grain alcohol is a weakened poison, but sitll a poison. It gets in your bloodstream and inhibits the natural function of oxygen transport. It also inhibits certain firings of neurons in your brain.

In any dose, all alcohols except grain alcohol will kill a human being. It just takes a bit more grain alcohol to get the job done for us.

Drunks saying, "What's your poison?" Do have a drop of truth to their cliche.

Kyle

[MrMistery]

I totally agree with Kyle and Patrick. At a certain concentration of alcohol, not even yeasts can survive. Think of it like this: you breathe out carbon dioxide, but when there is too much of it into the environment you die. Not the best analogy, but anyway...
Regards,
Andrew

[Poison]

Yes. I agree with you. Even organisms that carry out fermentation can not survive if alcohol concentration increases above a certain level.
And think about what happens when a person takes too much alcohol. The answer:probably that person will die.

[MrMistery]

Yeah... but if a man and a woman both drink too much alcohol they will have children... Limiting factor or encuraging factor for the grouth of the population?

[Poison]

I don't think they will pretend to 'make children' when they are in the hospital...

[MrMistery]

Really depends on the dose...

[Poison]

that is what i was trying to say...