Zymology, also known as zymurgy, is an applied science that studies the biochemical process of fermentation and its practical uses. Common topics include the selection of fermenting yeast and bacteria species and their use in brewing, wine making, fermenting milk, and the making of other fermented foods.
See also: Yeast in winemaking. Fermentation can be simply defined, in the context of brewing, as the conversion of sugar molecules into ethanol and carbon dioxide by yeast.
Fermentation practices have led to the discovery of ample microbial and antimicrobial cultures on fermented foods and products.
French chemist Louis Pasteur was the first 'zymologist' when in 1857 he connected yeast to fermentation. Pasteur originally defined fermentation as "respiration without air".
Pasteur performed careful research and concluded:
The German Eduard Buchner, winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize in chemistry, later determined that fermentation was actually caused by a yeast secretion, which he termed 'zymase'.
The research efforts undertaken by the Danish Carlsberg scientists greatly accelerated understanding of yeast and brewing. The Carlsberg scientists are generally acknowledged as having jump-started the entire field of molecular biology.
See also: Industrial fermentation.