The effect of heating and level of yeast inoculation on fermentation of sweet sorghum juice through the harvest season were investigated. Juice was heated at three temperatures and three yeast inoculation levels were used for each heating treatment. Fermentation of unheated juice resulted in mean sugar to alcohol conversion efficiencies of only 17.9% to 41.1%. On the other hand, greater than 90% conversion was observed when juice heated at 60°C was inoculated with 0.25 g L~^ (grams of yeast/liter of substrate) and when juice heated at 85°C was inoculated with yeast-to-substrate concentrations of 0.15 g L~^ and 0.25 g L~^ There was no evidence of massive bacterial contamination in the unheated juice to account for the poor conversion efficiency..