Cultivars of sweet (Rio, M81E and Della) and forage sorghums (Tato and Thor) were planted in Northeast
Mexico in order to estimate optimum harvesting time, sugar production, biomass composition and
ethanol yields. The juices were characterized in terms of sugar composition, free amino nitrogen (FAN)
and phenolics and then yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)-fermented into ethanol. The cultivars yielded different
volumes of sweet juice and total sugars. They also had different optimum harvesting times. Glucose
was the most abundant sugar in raw juices, followed by fructose and sucrose. FAN concentration ranged
from 19 to 36mgL−1 therefore, nitrogen supplementation was required for adequate fermentation. After
18 h fermentation, there were no differences in efficiencies among cultivars but the sweet sorghums
yielded more ethanol Ha−1 compared to the two forage sorghums (approximately 1000 LHa−1 versus
770LHa−1). Della was the cultivar with the highest productivity with 1051 LHa−1 ethanol produced after
the first cut.