A tannase yielding bacterial strain was isolated from sheep excreta. It was identified as Lactobacillus sp. ASR S1. The bacterial strain produced extracellular tannase under solid-state fermentation (SSF) using tamarind seed powder (TSP), wheat bran (WB), palm kernel cake (PKC) and coffee husk (CH). Among different substrates, coffee husk resulted maximal extra-cellular production of tannase. To optimize the extracellular yield of tannase under SSF various physico-chemical and nutritional parameters were studied. Supplementation of tannic acid was found useful for enzyme synthesis by the bacterial culture selectively depending up on the substrate. Maximum tannase production (0.85 U/gds) was obtained when SSF was carried out using coffee husk, supplemented with 0.6% tannic acid and 50% (w/v) moisture, inoculated with 1 mL cell suspension and incubated at 33 degrees C for 72 h. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.