sweet sorghum immediately post-anthesis. All cultivars accumulated
approximately 2 ◦Brix per week, with the highest increase
from week two to three before arriving to a steady state after the
fourth and fifth weeks (Fig. 1).
Subsequent fermentation trials were made with juices harvested
from the fourth week after anthesis for all cultivars (Fig. 1).
According to Prasad et al. (2007a), optimal harvesting stage is when
the juice contains 15.5–16.5 ◦Brix and this parameter is one of the
most important in order to obtain a juice of high fermentable quality
and thus maximize ethanol yield per hectare. At week four none
of the varieties evaluated were in the range recommended by these
authors but they were used in fermentation trials with the aim of
standardization.