Pengaruh Konsentrasi Ragi (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) dan Lama Fermentasi terhadap Kualitas Cuka Air Kelapa (Cocos nucifera)

Currently, the consumption of coconut water is only limited as beverage, while largely discarded as waste. To overcome this problem, the coconut water can be used as a main ingredient in vinegar production. In the acetic acid fermentation, there are two stages using two different types of microorganisms, namely yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) converting glucose into ethanol and bacteria (Acetobacter acetii) transforming ethanol into acetic acid. This study aimed to determine the concentration of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and the fermentation time in order to produce good quality of coconut water-based vinegar. This research used a completely randomized design (CRD) factorial with two factors and three levels, which were concentration of yeast (3%, 5% and 7%) and fermentation time (13 days, 15 days and 17 days). The results showed that the addition of yeast (R) affected significantly (P≤0.01) to total acid, and total dissolved solids, while fermentation time (L) only had a significant effect (P≤0.01) on total acid. Both of factors had no effect on color and aroma of the vinegar. The highest quality of vinegar was obtained from 7% yeast concentration (R3) and 13 days fermentation (L1) with 3.86-4.12% total acid, and 3.07oBrix total dissolved solids, with neutral color and aroma of vinegar.