Major Volatile Composition of Four Distilled Alcoholic Beverages Obtained from Fruits of the Forest

The aim of the present study was to obtain four distilled alcoholic beverages from red raspberry (RB), arbutus berry (AB), black mulberry (BM) and black currant (BC) by solid-state fermentation with Sacchromyces cerevisiae IFI83, and subsequent distillation of the fermented fruits. The mean concentrations of ethanol in the distillates from RB (41.3 g/hL aa), AB (44.3 g/hL aa), BM (48.3 g/hL aa) and BC (38.5 g/hL aa) were within the limits (from 38.5 to 86.0 g/hL aa) fixed by the European Council (Regulation 110/2008) for fruit distillates. In addition, the mean concentrations of methanol in the four alcoholic beverages were much lower than the maximum levels of acceptability that the aforementioned regulation fixed for RB, AB, BM and BC distillates. The mean volatile composition of the four distillates was different from other alcoholic beverages such as four commercial Galician orujo spirits, Portuguese bagaceiras, Mexican artisanal Bacanora beverages, and other distillates obtained from fermented blackberry, whey, cherry and black and red currants. These results showed that the pulps from RB, AB, BM and BC can be successfully used as fermentation substrates for producing alcoholic beverages with high quality and with their own distinctive characteristics.