If you’ve ever walked past a bakery at dawn, smelled the sharp tang of sauerkraut in a deli, or sipped a frothy craft beer on a patio, you’ve experienced fermentation—one of humanity’s oldest chemical tricks, perfected over thousands of years by accident and curiosity. For as long as humans have stored food in airtight jars or left grape juice in a warm corner, they’ve relied on tiny, living organisms pulling off a series of messy, vital chemical reactions to turn plain ingredients into something magical. As a chemicals supplier focused on industrial fermentation inputs, I’ve spent years working with brewers, food producers, and biotech teams to understand the “why” behind those reactions, because knowing the chemistry lets us do it better, faster, and more sustainably. Chemicals
Let’s start with the basics: fermentation isn’t just “stuff going bad.” It’s an anaerobic process—meaning it happens in the absence of oxygen—used by microbes like yeast and bacteria to generate energy when oxygen is scarce. All living cells need ATP, the molecule that powers nearly every biological task, and most of us learn in high school biology that aerobic respiration (using oxygen) produces way more ATP than anaerobic methods. But when oxygen runs out, microbes switch to fermentation to keep their systems running, breaking down sugars into smaller byproducts that still hold energy. That core dynamic is what drives every type of fermentation, from the sourdough in your morning toast to the bioplastics some of our clients manufacture.
Take yeast, the star of alcohol and leavening fermentation, as an example. Yeast are single-celled fungi that feast on glucose, a simple sugar found in grains, fruits, and even some vegetables. The first step in their chemical pathway is glycolysis, a process that happens in the cell’s cytoplasm (the gel-like stuff inside the cell) regardless of oxygen levels. During glycolysis, a six-molecule glucose is split into two three-molecule pyruvate molecules, producing a small amount of ATP—about 2 net molecules per glucose—and two NADH molecules, which carry high-energy electrons needed later. In aerobic conditions, those pyruvate and NADH would move into the mitochondria to keep making ATP. But when there’s no oxygen, yeast have to recycle those NADH molecules so glycolysis can keep happening, because without NADH, glycolysis stops and the yeast die. That’s where the next reaction kicks in: alcoholic fermentation.
Here’s where the magic (and the familiar byproducts) happens. Each pyruvate molecule from glycolysis loses one carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO₂), turning into a two-carbon molecule called acetaldehyde. Then, the NADH drops off its electrons to acetaldehyde, converting acetaldehyde into ethanol—aka the alcohol in beer, wine, and spirits. The CO₂ that gets released here is why bread rises: when bakers mix yeast into dough, the CO₂ bubbles get trapped in the gluten network, expanding as the yeast work, and bake into the light, fluffy crumb we love. For brewers, that same CO₂ is kept in the beer to create carbonation, and the ethanol is what makes it alcoholic. It’s a simple two-step reaction, but it’s been refined over centuries: different yeast strains tweak the balance of byproducts, adding notes of banana, clove, or even tropical fruit to beer and wine, not just ethanol and CO₂.
But alcoholic fermentation isn’t the only game in town. Lactic acid fermentation, driven by bacteria like Lactobacillus, is the backbone of most fermented foods that aren’t alcoholic—think sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, and sourdough (wait, sourdough actually uses a mix of yeast and lactic acid bacteria, that’s why it’s tangy!). Lactic acid bacteria don’t produce ethanol or CO₂; their end product is lactic acid, and their pathway is even simpler in many ways. They also start with glycolysis, breaking glucose into pyruvate to make ATP, but instead of converting pyruvate to acetaldehyde, they just use the NADH from glycolysis to turn pyruvate directly into lactic acid. No CO₂, no alcohol—just that sharp, tangy taste we associate with fermented pickles or Greek yogurt.
What’s fascinating is how these reactions aren’t just for small-scale food production. Industrial fermentation, which I work with as a chemicals supplier, uses these same core pathways to make everything from antibiotics to biofuels. For example, when manufacturers produce penicillin, they use a mold (Penicillium chrysogenum) that performs a modified fermentation: it breaks down sugars to get energy, and in the process, synthesizes penicillin, a complex molecule that saves millions of lives. Or take bioethanol, a renewable fuel made from fermenting corn or sugarcane—large-scale fermenters use yeast in controlled, oxygen-free tanks, tweaking nutrient levels to get the highest possible ethanol yield. That’s where our role as a supplier comes in: we provide the precise nutrients yeast and bacteria need to fuel those reactions, because without the right nitrogen, phosphorus, and trace minerals, the microbes can’t keep glycolysis going, and production drops off.
Of course, fermentation isn’t always perfect, and there are other chemical reactions that can throw it off. For example, when you make wine, wild yeast from the air can sometimes colonize the juice, leading to “spontaneous fermentation,” but that can also introduce unwanted bacteria that produce off-flavors like acetic acid (vinegar) instead of ethanol. Acetic acid bacteria are aerobic, so if oxygen gets into a fermenter during wine production, those bacteria will switch to aerobic respiration, turning ethanol into acetic acid, which is why a wine that’s left open turns into vinegar. That’s why industrial fermenters are designed to be completely sealed, to control oxygen levels and ensure only the desired reactions happen.
Another key point: the chemical reactions of fermentation are heavily influenced by environmental conditions. Temperature, pH, and sugar concentration all shift how microbes operate. If a brewer ferments beer too cold, the yeast produces fewer side byproducts, leading to a crisp, clean lager; too warm, and it might produce fruity or buttery flavors (that’s diacetyl, a common byproduct of yeast fermentation that gives some beers a butterscotch taste). For sauerkraut makers, keeping the cabbage at a consistent cool temperature lets the lactic acid bacteria grow steadily, producing enough lactic acid to preserve the cabbage without letting harmful bacteria take over. Adjusting those conditions is all about understanding the underlying chemistry, and that’s why our clients rely on us not just for chemicals, but for technical support to tweak their processes.
Let’s get a bit deeper into the molecular level to drive this home, because it’s easy to see fermentation as just “yeast eats sugar makes alcohol,” but the steps are complex and tightly regulated. Glycolysis, the first stage, is a 10-step reaction, each catalyzed by a specific enzyme—proteins that speed up chemical reactions without being used up. Enzymes are critical here; without them, glucose would never break down fast enough to sustain life. For example, hexokinase is the enzyme that starts glycolysis by adding a phosphate group to glucose, turning it into glucose-6-phosphate, a molecule that’s primed to split. Alcohol dehydrogenase is the enzyme that converts acetaldehyde to ethanol, and different yeast strains have slightly different versions of this enzyme, leading to the varied flavor profiles we taste. Even lactic acid fermentation uses a specific enzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, to turn pyruvate into lactic acid.
As a chemicals supplier, I’ve seen firsthand how small changes to the inputs can alter these entire reaction pathways. For instance, adding extra nitrogen to a yeast fermentation tank doesn’t just help the yeast grow—it speeds up the production of enzymes involved in glycolysis, leading to a faster fermentation process that cuts production time by days for some of our clients. We also supply buffer chemicals that stabilize pH, because if the pH drops too low or too high, the enzymes stop working, stopping fermentation cold. It’s a balance between chemistry and biology, and the more we learn about those reactions, the better we can support our clients.
I think the most exciting part of working in this space is how fermentation is evolving beyond food and medicine. Right now, companies are using engineered microbes to perform fermentation reactions that make things like sustainable plastic, flavorings, and even proteins for meat substitutes. For example, some plant-based meat producers use fermentation to create heme, the molecule that gives meat its bloody taste, by engineering yeast to produce the same protein found in animal blood. That’s a whole new frontier for fermentation chemistry, blending synthetic biology with traditional pathways to create products that are better for the planet.
None of this would be possible without understanding the core reactions I’ve walked through: glycolysis, the anaerobic conversion of pyruvate, and the byproducts that define each type of fermentation. It’s a system that’s existed for billions of years, refined by evolution, and now adapted by humans to solve modern problems.
If you’re involved in industrial fermentation—whether you’re producing food and beverages, pharmaceuticals, biofuels, or novel materials—we can work with you to tailor chemical inputs that optimize reaction efficiency, reduce waste, and improve product quality. To learn more about how our solutions can support your fermentation processes and help you meet your production goals, reach out to start a conversation.
Solvents References
Campbell, N. A., & Reece, J. B. (2019). Biology (11th ed.). Pearson.
Legras, J. L., Mulas, M., & Karst, F. (2007). Alcohol fermentation in yeast: Molecular and physiological aspects. FEMS Yeast Research, 7(3), 400-410.
Hesseltine, C. W. (1992). Lactic acid fermentation. Scientific American, 266(6), 68-74.
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