Storage period affecting dynamic succession of microbiota and quality changes of strong-flavor Baijiu Daqu

It has been unclear how long Chinese Baijiu Daqu's storage period would be appropriate. To this end, physicochemical and enzymatic tests on the samples of two kinds of Strong-flavor Daqu during the storage period of 7 months were performed. Meanwhile, the dynamics of microbial communities during storage were also explored using high-throughput sequencing. The results showed that both the physicochemical properties and the enzymatic indices have altered in different extents with the extension of storage period of two kinds of Daqu. A total of 21 dominant microbial taxa at the genus level were found in two Daqu. Among them, Weissella, Lactobacillus, Pediococcus, Bacillus and Acetobacter were the common prokaryotic microorganisms in two Daqu. Pichia and Thermoascus were the two major eukaryotes in two Daqu. Overall, the T-Daqu presented a more stable prokaryotic succession than that of M-Daqu, while the eukaryotic succession seemed opposite. The variation trends of the physiochemical and enzymatic indices of the two Daqu marked the effective time of storage period which are appropriately 60–210 days for M-Daqu and 60–180 days for T-Daqu.