Furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) are representative inhibitors to ethanologenic yeast generated from biomass pretreatment using dilute acid hydrolysis. Few yeast strains tolerant to inhibitors are available. A novel tolerant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, NRRL Y-50049, having enhanced biotransformation ability to convert furfural to furan methanol (FM), HMF to furan di-methanol (FDM), and is able to produce a normal yield of ethanol as an initial culture.