Tequila colony size every four hours. This process goes on for 24–48 hours. Next, yeast turns acetaldehyde into ethyl alcohol which is known as one of the organoleptic compounds produced in fermentation. The two main categories of yeast used in tequila are commercial brewers yeast and yeast that comes from precultivated existing yeast that has been preserved. The use of either type of yeast can result in different end products of tequila. Tequila is a distilled beverage that is made from the fermentation of the sugars found from the blue agave plant once it has been cooked, the main sugar being
Tequila hydrolysis of methylated pectin which is naturally present in the agave plant, but there has been speculations that it is also partly produced from the enzymatic reactions of yeast strains containing pectin methyl esterase enzyme which break up the methoxyl group from the pectin. Nearly 50 different esters identified in tequila which together give rise to the fruit like flavors and smell. One of the most abundant esters is ethyl acetate which is synthesized during fermentation by the yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae," using alcohol transferase enzyme which links acetic acid to ethanol. In general, the longer the controlled fermentation period, the