Fermentation of Dagarti pito is done by inoculation
of the wort using dried yeast cells (dambila) from a
previous brew or by using a portion of the previous
brew as inoculum (Sefa-Dedeh and Asante, 1988;
Demuyakor and Ohta, 1992). The use of Dambila
(or backslopping) as starter for fermentations in the
pito brewing process does not necessarily ensure
consistent product quality since it is a mixture of
different strains (Sefa-Dedeh et al, 1999). It has been
established that Dambila is a top fermenting strain
while those trapped within the woven belt are bottom
fermenting (Bansah, 1990; Demuyakor and Ohta,
1992). The use of starter cultures could improve the quality and predictability of the alcoholic
fermentation process. The fermentation time,
production of flavors, visual appearance, texture and
other attributes that could help assure product quality
and consistency would also be more predictable with
the use of known starter cultures.