**2. Fruit processing**

Healthy melons, *Cucumis melo* L*,* of the varieties "*Piel de sapo*", "*Ruidera*" and "*Sancho*" coming from cultivars of La Mancha region in Spain were processed. Melons were washed and divided into three sets and processed in different ways to obtain three substrate types ready for their fermentation:

\* Juice: The melons were hand-peeled, cut up into pieces manually, after that crushed and peeled in a horizontal des-temmer with rollers to produce a paste that was then pressed in a pneumatic vertical press

\* Paste without skin ("pws"): The melons were processed as described above, but not pressed.

\* Paste: The unpeeled melons were cut up into pieces directly and then crushed to form a paste that included the skins.

The yield of an industrial process must be calculated carefully since it is of great economic importance as well as conventional fermentation parameters such as ºBrix, reducing sugars, volatile acidity, pH and alcohol degree. The yield (w/w) of the processed fruits depended on the substrate assayed. Therefore in the case of the paste it can reach 100%, 70% (30% of skin) for the pws and only 50% for the juice. This was mainly caused by the percentage of melon removed as skin in the case of the "pws" and by difficulties in filtering the melon paste to produce the "juice". Juice extraction yields of up to 75 % have been attained for other fermented products, such as grape because of the small weight of the skins. These yields were improved and an increase of 10 % were recorded for the juice and pws substrates, perhaps thanks to optimization of procedures. By-product yields were 21 % (w/w) of skins for the pws substrate and 40 % (w/w) skins and pressed pulp for the juice substrate (Hernández-Gómez et al, 2005a).

leached out of the fruit into the spirit, which may then be redistilled or bottled as the finished product. Maceration time is a key factor both for component extraction and for achieving the right sugar content and colour of the spirit. The amount and the parts of the fruit used in maceration are two other aspects to be considered. For fleshy fruits like pears, apples, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries, pieces of fresh fruit may be used, or the seeds or nuts (blackthorn, hazelnuts, almonds) may be employed. Substrate conditioning is also an important factor, and may include pieces of fruit of different sizes, seeds, placenta, or skins

Melons are a major crop in the La Mancha region (Spain) and the large crop size results in high levels of surplus production which must be commercialised in a very short period of time. The fermentation of melons and its distillation to produce genuine spirits could be a solution to the problem of the saturation of the market that would prevent wastage. The process of developing a new product has to be undertaken step by step, and for that reason trials to examine fruit processing, clarification, fermentation, column and alembic distillations were performed at laboratory and pilot scale (Briones, et al., 2002; Hernández Gómez, et al., 2003). Chemical and sensory analyses were carried out to assess the quality of the spirits and liqueurs produced comparing the results with those in other commercially

Healthy melons, *Cucumis melo* L*,* of the varieties "*Piel de sapo*", "*Ruidera*" and "*Sancho*" coming from cultivars of La Mancha region in Spain were processed. Melons were washed and divided into three sets and processed in different ways to obtain three substrate types

\* Juice: The melons were hand-peeled, cut up into pieces manually, after that crushed and peeled in a horizontal des-temmer with rollers to produce a paste that was then pressed in a

\* Paste without skin ("pws"): The melons were processed as described above, but not

\* Paste: The unpeeled melons were cut up into pieces directly and then crushed to form a

The yield of an industrial process must be calculated carefully since it is of great economic importance as well as conventional fermentation parameters such as ºBrix, reducing sugars, volatile acidity, pH and alcohol degree. The yield (w/w) of the processed fruits depended on the substrate assayed. Therefore in the case of the paste it can reach 100%, 70% (30% of skin) for the pws and only 50% for the juice. This was mainly caused by the percentage of melon removed as skin in the case of the "pws" and by difficulties in filtering the melon paste to produce the "juice". Juice extraction yields of up to 75 % have been attained for other fermented products, such as grape because of the small weight of the skins. These yields were improved and an increase of 10 % were recorded for the juice and pws substrates, perhaps thanks to optimization of procedures. By-product yields were 21 % (w/w) of skins for the pws substrate and 40 % (w/w) skins and pressed pulp for the juice

depending on the type of product being manufactured.

available spirits.

**2. Fruit processing** 

ready for their fermentation:

pneumatic vertical press

paste that included the skins.

substrate (Hernández-Gómez et al, 2005a).

pressed.

The initial pH of the different substrates varied between 4.4 and 5.2. and this supposes a problem for the easy growing of lactic and acetic acid bacteria; for that, pH was adjusted or not before the fermentation by adding citric acid to reach values around 4 in order to inhibit these bacteria.
