This article describes a new method for the early detection of alcoholic fermentation arrest. This methodology is based on the flow cytometric assessment of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeasts stained with a carboxyfluorescein diacetate fluorescent viability probe. Multicomponent analysis of viable cell distribution constitutes a promising new tool to describe physiological and dynamic changes to heterogeneous viable populations during alcoholic fermentation, through its ability to discriminate between successful processes and those ending prematurely. This framework, which is based on the comparison of cytometric histogram descriptors' combinations that can be related to simple physiological significance comparison, quickly and simply, allows testing yeasts for their fermentation ability and can be used to detect any kind of viability loss so that fermentation arrest can be avoided. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.