Mescal an alcoholic beverage from Agave spp. with great commercial potential

Mescal is a regional alcoholic beverage with denomination of origin; this category has been granted to the beverage produced in three states of the Mexican Republic. However, most of the mescal is produced in a traditional way without quality control, mainly in the fermentation step spontaneous fermentations are used by autochthonous strains and in some cases baking yeasts. The raw materials used for mescal elaboration are different species of Agave. The process of mescal production basically consists of six stages: selection of the raw material, cutting, cooking, grinding, fermentation, and distillation. During the selection, plants at least 8-years old are chosen, then farmers proceed with the jima (cutting of the leaves and extraction of the pineapple). Later, the pineapples (heart of the agave) are placed on a natural oven, consisting of a circular excavation forming a large container covered with stones previously heated with firewood. After that, cooking step is performed in which polysaccharides (fructans) are hydrolyzed to obtain fructose-rich syrup. Then, pineapples grinded to reduce its size and more sugars are made available for fermentation. In this last step, the must resulting from the milling process is placed in wooden jars where it is fermented naturally for 4-5 days. This stage is carried out with native yeasts or with selected strains which transform the sugars into ethanol. Finally, during the first distillation the so-called wine water is obtained, which have 15%-25% alcohol. Later this product is taken for second distillation where it concentrates until have 45%-50% of alcohol, obtaining a product of greater purity also called young mescal. The purpose of this document is to review all the mescal process, discuss its chemical and physical properties, and the microorganisms involved in mescal fermentation.