Technology Development of Sake Fermentation in Japan

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 nonconventional 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.