Process optimization and quality evaluation of sugar cane-guava blend wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage primarily made from grapes. In Ethiopia, 20-50% of agricultural products are exposed to post-harvest loss. The objective of this research was to develop wine from sugar cane and guava juice blend, characterize the product, and optimize the process parameters. The design was performed by lower (20%) and upper levels (40%) of red guava juice proportion, fermentation temperature of 20 °C up to 30 °C and fermentation duration ranged from 7 up to 13 days. Optimization was carried out using response surface methodology. All analyses were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Minitab version 19 with the Least Significant Difference (p < 0.05). The total bacteria and yeast & mold growth ranged from 6.18-4.72 and 5.21-2.43 Log10 (CFU/mL) respectively. The overall acceptability of blended wine ranged from 4.12-4.51 scores. The optimum process parameters of sugar cane and red guava blending ratio of (60:40%), fermentation temperature of 26.4 °C, and fermentation time of 10.08 days were obtained. At this optimum condition titratable acidity (0.568%), Vitamin C (24.92 mg/100ml), total phenol (3.28 mg/l), and alcohol content of (12.3 %v/v) were produced. Process optimization significantly affected the overall quality of wine.