I-4

Technology Development of Sake Fermentation in Japan

Toshiomi YOSHIDA

JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Bangkok Liaison

Office
113 TWY Office Center, 10th Fl., Serm-mit Tower, 159 Sukhumvit
Soi 21, Bangkok 10110, THAILAND

Brewing of sake is one of Japanese traditional technologies developed in a

long experience of peoples spending a long time over several thousands of
years in their history. Their continuous efforts for technology development
has now resulted in a large scale industry producing various kinds of sake
in a big scale with the most modern technologies including facilities of
full automation and operation of the processes with computer control
systems. The products are now well appreciated by the people with the
world wide distribution of them. This article will review recent
development of technologies in sake brewing including computerization
of brewing processes for adaptive control of so sophisticated processes of
mashing sake, and knowledge based control of the process utilizing non-
conventional methods of fuzzy theory and expert systems for brewing
sake and ginjo sake, which is one the most complicated processes with
many unknown factors and phenomena involved, and the product should
be evaluated in non-conventional ways with delicate sensory tests by
highly experienced persons.

Dissolution of Steamed Rice in Saké Mashing Process

The dissolution of substances from steamed rice on the addition of water
was studied to formulate an operational equation to describe the
dissolution phenomena. The following phenomena were taken into
consideration in order to construct kinetic equations. (1) A significant
increase of total sugar concentration was observed at an early stage of
dissolution. (2) The high concentration of produced sugar decreased α-
amylase activity and consequently dissolution was greatly suppressed.
During the fermentation, as the glucose concentration was decreased by
conversion to ethanol, the steamed rice was significantly dissolved
without being influenced by the glucose inhibition. (3) When water was
added to steamed rice, the volume of the liquid phase remarkably
decreased during the 2 h after mixing due to adsorption of water into the
grains and afterwards the liquid volume increased due to the release of the
water on disintegration of rice grains. The operational equations for
steamed rice dissolution formulated based on the experimental results
mentioned above could well simulate the experimental observations under
various operational conditions.

d ( S / S0 ) S
= −19.5 × 1011 ⋅ E0n exp(−9260 / T )
dt S0
V0 = 0.20 Eon
S
V = V0 + (1 − )(Vt − V0 ) + J ⋅ r ( S 0 − S )
S0
S
Ct = r (1 − ) /V
S0

Dissolution of Koji in Saké Mashing

The dissolution of koji was investigated in order to formulate a set of
empirical equations for the process control of saké mashing. Experimental
analysis resulted in the following conclusions, which provided important
rationales for formation of process equations. 1) Koji contained two kinds
of soluble substrates, one readily soluble without α-amylase, and the other
slowly soluble by the action of α-amylase. 2) The dissolution of the latter
component varied greatly with the variety of the rice. Koji dissolution was
successfully simulated by use of the process equations. Combination of
the equations of dissolution of koji and steamed rice allowed a close
estimation of the dissolution of the materials during saké mashing.

Rice
dissolution &
Steamed Water hydroxylation
rice + water adsorbed Fermentation

Gluco-amylase
α-Amylase Yeast

Insoluble Soluble Glucose Ethanol

Starch Starch

Fig. 1 A model of dissolution of steamed rice, hydroxylation of starch,

and ethanol fermentation
 120
Dissolution rate (

100
80
60
40
20
0
0 5 10 15 20
Time (d)

Fig. 2 Simulation of dissolution of various kinds of rice in sake mash.

Broken line: partially digested rice in koji; dotted line: steamed
rice; solid line: whole mash including both steamed rice and
koji; one dot line: koji; two dots line: residual starch in koji.

Yeast Growth and Ethanol Production in Saké Mashing

Growth and fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae kyokai 601
(awanashi) were examined aiming the set-up of equations for the
estimation of yeast growth and ethanol production in saké mashing, and
the following were concluded.
Specific growth rate µ (1/h) and specific ethanol production rate (g-
ethanol/g-cell/h) in a liquid medium were expressed as functions of
glucose concentration G (g/dl) and ethanol concentration Et (g/dl) taking
into account the effect of temperature:
 G  K 
µ = A⋅ ⋅ exp  K1 ⋅ Et2 ⋅ exp( K 2 ⋅ G ) + 3 
2
G  T 
G + Ks +
K si
G  k 
π = a⋅ 2
⋅ exp k1 ⋅ Et2 ⋅ exp(k2 ⋅ G ) + 3 
G  T
G + ks +
k si

where all letters except µ, ν, G, Et and T are experimental constants.

2. Equations of specific growth rate and specific production rate were
modified for saké mashing, taking into account the effect of cell
concentration on specific growth rate and correlation between specific
production and specific growth rate:

X
µ s = µ (1 − )
Xm
π s = π + α ⋅ µs

where Xm (108 cells/ml) is the maximum X and is constant.

Adaptive Control of the Mashing Process in Saké Brewing

A simulation model of the saké mashing (moromi) process, the main
process of saké brewing, was constructed on the basis of mass transfer and
biochemical reactions in a multi-phase system of solid and liquid. The
temperature in the mashing process was controlled using this simulation
model and a microcomputer, and fine saké was brewed on an experimental
scale. It appeared that the mashing process was divided practically into
two phases. In the first phase, the reactions of rice dissolution, glucose
production, and ethanol fermentation did not interact with each other,
while in the second phase they were limited by the rate of rice dissolution.
 Aqueous Phase
Water Partially
Enzymes
Digested
Insoluble Starch
Starch Water

α- Soluble
Hard
Amylase Starch Starch
α-
Gluco-
Amylase
amylase
Steamed Glucose
Koji
Rice
Yeast

Ethanol

Steamed
Sm-Smo
Water Rice
So-Sk
d(Sm/Smo)/dt
α-
Absorption 1-S/So

into rice

d(Sh/Sho)/dt Koji

V Ct

d(Sd/Sdo)/dt
T

dG/dt Gluco-

dX/dt
T
G X

Inhi-
µ
dE/dt π bition
T
CO2
kig
E
kie
Fig. 3 Element analysis and signal flow diagram of the sake mashing

Ethanol G lucose Dissolution TotalSugar Yeast

180
EtO Hnol(m l/l);G (g/l);S (g/l);
Diss.rate (%);Yeast (x50/l)

160 Temperature
140 profile

120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Tim e (h)

Fig. 4 Simulation of sake mashing process with 3 times feeding of

rice.

Computer Control of Sake Mashing in Pilot Scale

This study deals with pilot-scale fermentation of sake mash (Moromi
mash) by on-line basis computer control. A test batch of the mashing
using 1,000 kg of polished rice was conducted, following an ordinary
method of three stages mashing in a closed fermentor of 3 kl capacity. As
the dead time and the time lag have been observed in response of mash
temperature, a cascade system was adopted for effective control of mash
temperature. An adaptive control system with the aid of a microcomputer
was constructed of continuous monitoring of the temperature and ethanol
concentration in the mash. The ethanol concentration was estimated from
evolution rate of carbon dioxide gas measured with a dry-gas-flow-meter.
The control of the mashing was started after the final addition of materials.
In a test run, temperature of the mash was controlled in a range of ±1°C
deviation from the optimized set value of temperature, and the process
was completed on the schedule. Observed values of ethanol concentration,
one of the most important state variables, coincided well with a reference
process, a little deviation was observed on sake-meter. The quality of
produced sake was evaluated similar to that of the reference process
characteristically.
Pulse
Computer generator

Gas
DPC meter

Switches unit

Tw Tc
Cooling
unit
Fermentor

Controller Controller Wall Temp Temp @

2 1 Tw Center
Computer DPC Tc

Minor Loop

Major Loop Mash Temp

Tav

Fig. 5 A cascade control of sake mashing process for adaptive control.

Fuzzy control of sake mashing
Tsuchiya Y., et al constructed fuzzy rules and a fuzzy simulator based on
the control techniques of Hiroshima tohji (experts). The linguistic rule -
base for control of moromi mashing process in a sake brewery in
Hiroshima is as follows. Their results of controlling sake mashing were
successful, and the technologies have been extensively developed by Oishi
et al to be industrially utilized in the biggest sake brewing company in
Kyoto.

Table 1. The fuzzy rules for the moromi mashing process in a sake brewery

1. IF MN < 7 THEN FO = 0
2. IF MN > 7 AND BE is B(H) THEN BFO(H) =k1 B(H)

3. IF MN > 7 AND BE is B(M) THEN BFO(M) =k2 B(M)

4. IF MN > 7 AND BE is B(L) THEN BFO(L) =k3 B(L)

5. IF MN > 7 AND AL is A(H) THEN AFO(H) =k4 A(H)

6. IF MN > 7 AND AL is A(M) THEN AFO(M) =k5 A(M)

7. IF MN > 7 AND AL is A(L) THEN AFO(L) =k6 A(L)

8. IF MN > 7 AND MN < 15 THEN FO = (BFO+AFO)/2

9 IF MN > 15 AND A(M) = 1 THEN FO = BFO

10 IF MN > 15 AND A(M) ≠ 1 THEN FO = (BFO+AFO)/2

11 IF MN = 17 AND B(L) = 1 THEN END

12 IF MN = 18 AND B(H) ≠ 1 THEN END

13 IF MN = 19 THEN END

MN, brewing time; BE, baume; AL, alcohol; FO, fuzzy output variable

B(H),B(H),B(H),A(H),A(H),A(H), values membership function

Framework rules for fuzzy control of ginjo sake making
Hanai, T., et al have developed a fuzzy control system for ginjo sake
making. Their linguistic rules for the control of ginjo sake brewing are
shown in the following Table 2. Ginjo sake has been successfully
produced in a commercial scale in Nagoya since their works. They have
extended their research works to develop a method to control the quality
of products, ginjo sake, with use of a data mining technique to extract
important information of a long-term accumulation of the data of actual
production.
Table 2. Control strategies and parameters of membership functions
Parameter of
Temperature membership
Control Period Reference
region control function
s b
Regular
1 Days 1 - 9 increase -
(0.4 /day)

Ratio of
Increase by 0.5 1.5
Day 10 - length
2 fuzzy
bouze
control Straight Degree -15 15
line A - B
plot Ratio of
Bouze - Decrease by 0.5 1.5
baume> fuzzy length
3
2.0 control Degree -15 15
Increase or BMD -2 2
Straight
Baume < decrease by
4 line BMD
2.0 fuzzy
curve Temperature 5.0 8.0
control
Bouze means the disappearance of the fermentation foam from the moromi.
A - B plot: Alcohol vs. Baume; BMD curve, Cumulative baume vs. time.