Best instruments for best sake

2023-02-27 | Corporate

Sake is an alcoholic beverage brewed from polished and fermented rice. It consists of four ingredients: rice, water, koji and yeast. The clear or whitish cloudy brew contains about 15 to 20 percent alcohol by volume. The "Dassai" sake produced by Asahi Shuzo Co. Ltd. contains around 14 % by volume and is one of the best-known and most preferred sake brands in the world - rising to fame at the latest in 2014, when Japan's then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented former US President Barack Obama with a bottle of Dassai as official gift from Japan.

From rice to the Japanese national drink
In Western countries, sake is often mistakenly associated with wine, but the production process is more similar to brewing beer. The basis of the production process is the conversion of rice starch into sugar. In the origins of sake more than 2,000 years ago, an enzyme from human saliva was responsible for that - virgin priestesses are said to have chewed cooked rice, which then began to ferment - today, the koji fungus is used to start the fermentation process. A fine powder of the fungus is sprinkled over steamed rice, and at a certain temperature, after a few days, the result is fermented rice. It is mixed with freshly steamed rice and water to form an initial mash, which, after repeating the process several times and then aging, becomes sake.

Anton Paar instruments for the best sake
For more than ten years already, Asahi Shuzo Co. Ltd. has relied on Anton Paar's Sake Analyzing System for checking the fermentation stages and quality control of the finished Dassai. In 2012, the Japanese manufacturer purchased the first system, now three systems are in use at the production facility in Yamaguchi Prefecture, about 50 kilometers southwest of Hiroshima. In addition to the Alcolyzer SAKE ME, the Anton Paar system also uses the density meter DMA 5000 M and the sample changer Xsample 122.

Asahi Shuzo and Anton Paar Japan have now made a video about their successful cooperation, the use of the instruments in the manufacturing process and the many advantages of the system: