Quick, who discovered the process of fermentation?  I’ll share the answer at the end of this article.  Suffice it to say, the concept has been known for just over two hundred and fifty years.

Let’s go back to first year college or perhaps even high school chemistry as fermentation is, in essence, just a chemical reaction.  Fermentation is the process of converting sugar (from grapes) to ethanol (ethyl alcohol) through the metabolism of yeast.  The process is anaerobic (oxygen free) and generates heat in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2).  In fact, sugar that has been infused with yeast, looks like it’s boiling as it releases carbon dioxide. The true chemical equation is:

C6H12O6 yields 2C2H5OH + 2CO2