The chemical equations below summarize the fermentation of sucrose (CHO) into ethanol (CHOH). Alcoholic fermentation converts one mole of glucose into two moles of ethanol and two moles of carbon dioxide, producing two moles of ATP in the process.
:CHO + 2 ADP + 2 P → 2 CHOH + 2 CO + 2 ATP
Sucrose is a sugar composed of a glucose linked to a fructose. In the first step of alcoholic fermentation, the enzyme invertase cleaves the glycosidic linkage between the glucose and fructose molecules.
Next, each glucose molecule is broken down into two pyruvate molecules in a process known as glycolysis. Glycolysis is summarized by the equation:
:CHO + 2 ADP + 2 P + 2 NAD → 2 CHCOCOO + 2 ATP + 2 NADH + 2 HO + 2 H
CHCOCOO is pyruvate, and P is inorganic phosphate.  Finally, pyruvate is converted to ethanol and CO in two steps, regenerating oxidized NAD+ needed for glycolysis:
:1.  CHCOCOO + H → CHCHO + CO
catalyzed by pyruvate decarboxylase
:2.  CHCHO + NADH + H → CHOH + NAD
This reaction is catalyzed by alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH1 in baker's yeast).
As shown by the reaction equation, glycolysis causes the reduction of two molecules of NAD to NADH. Two ADP molecules are also converted to two ATP and two water molecules via substrate-level phosphorylation.