Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2019 November 1

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November 1

Ethanol fermentation

A friend and I were joking around about different generic names for all alcoholic beverages. Two of our favorites were "Liquid Stupid" and "Yeast Poop". This led to an interesting question. Are all alcoholic beverages based upon yeast fermentation? Our Ethanol fermentation page says

" All ethanol contained in alcoholic beverages (including ethanol produced by carbonic maceration) is produced by means of fermentation induced by yeast. "

The answer to this refdesk question might allow us to replace that citation needed with a citation or possibly edit it and add a citation if it turns out to be incorrect.

Our Zymomonas mobilis article says

" Zymomonas mobilis is a Gram negative, facultative anaerobic, non-sporulating, polarly-flagellated, rod-shaped bacterium. It is the only species found in the genus Zymomonas. It has notable bioethanol-producing capabilities, which surpass yeast in some aspects. It was originally isolated from alcoholic beverages like the African palm wine, the Mexican pulque, and also as a contaminant of cider and beer (cider sickness and beer spoilage) in European countries. "

Our Pulque page says

" Unlike beer, the fermenting agent present in pulque is a bacterium of the species Zymomonas mobilis (syn. Thermobacterium mobile ) rather than yeast. "

References

Only one problem. The citation on the pulque page doesn't seem to support the claim, and the claim on the Z. mobilis page is uncited.

Finally, our Palm wine page says

" Palm sap begins fermenting immediately after collection, due to natural yeasts in the air (often spurred by residual yeast left in the collecting container). "

and makes no mention of Z. mobilis.

So, are all alcoholic beverages made from "Yeast poop" (yeast fermentation) or not? What do the sources say? --Guy Macon (talk) 08:35, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

It is possible to produce an alchohol molecule through a chemical process. Alcoholic beverages are not created that way because it is much cheaper and easier to let yeast do the work. There are processes named things like "fermentation without yeast." That doesn't mean that yeast isn't used. It means that yeast is not added. The yeast that is naturally found in the system is used instead. 135.84.167.41 (talk) 16:09, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

Z. mobilis is one of the fermenting agents, according to [1]. Also a couple of lactobacilli, also the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 18:07, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

All of our alcoholic beverages (AFAIK) are made from "yeast poop". Except for one - Vladivar Vodka, from Varrington. In a manner rather reminiscent of non-brewed condiment, this was made from an industrial ethanol byproduct stream (Varrington was the centre of the UK chemical industry), bottled up for human consumption. OTOH, post-Weizmann, nearly the whole UK chemical industry was based on yeast (or at least, bacterial) poop anyway. Andy Dingley (talk) 23:30, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

I tend to refer to the bubbles in yeast bread as formed by "yeast farts", as they are the waste gasses expelled by yeast (no anus involved, of course). SinisterLefty (talk) 06:19, 7 November 2019 (UTC)

PC voting system in Fla (2000)

Hi, even if this system was widespread in only 24 out of 67 counties, is it possible that the punched card system was the most widespread method of voting at the state level, as far as the electors in general are concerned? I say this, because these machines were the ststemi also used in the most populous counties, and this affects. Thank you. I don't need figures, it's not necessary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.41.100.198 (talk) 15:02, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

If you already have the figures, then what's your question? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 16:06, 1 November 2019 (UTC)

I would have found the source to be reliable, I need a confirmation. If you go to this link on page 633 (9/74) there is a table with the voting systems and the numbers expressed with the systems themselves. Out of 6 million votes in total, 3.7 million preferences were expressed with punched card systems. So I assume that the majority of state voters in that year used and voiced their votes with the Votomatic machines, the sucittate ones. It is the first table. https://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2525&context=facpubs