Sake brewing is rooted in the traditions of each region in Japan, and many people love the unique taste created by skilled techniques.
However, traditional production methods have a harsh aspect for workers, contributing to a shortage of successors. Yanai Electric & Machinery Co., Ltd., which operates in Oita Prefecture, supports the reform of working styles in the sake brewing industry by introducing advanced technology.
"We would like to help sake brewery where needed while maintaining the goodness of handcraft,
rather than completely automating it," said Shinji Fukai of Yanai Electric & Machinery.
Using technologies such as IoT and AI, the company is developing systems to reduce the burden on craftspeople while preserving traditional production methods. One of them is "Koji Mimamori-kun (rice malt watcher)" using STREAL.
In the process of sake brewing, night watch work for rice malt production was especially burdensome for workers. The same temperature has to be maintained for about 10 hours until the amount of moisture contained in the rice malt becomes appropriate. Therefore, the night-shift workers had to constantly check the temperature throughout the night and adjust the amount of air supplied to the rice malt using special boards.
On the other hand, with "Koji Mimamori-kun," when the temperature of rice malt exceeds the set temperature, the fan automatically rotates to lower the temperature, and when the temperature falls below the set temperature, the fan stops. Thus, there is no need for people to monitor or adjust the temperature all through the night. Comparison between conventional night watch temperature control and that using a prototype showed that "Koji Mimamori-kun" can control the temperature of the rice malt in a narrower range.
Another important thing to replace the duty of night-shift workers is to know the water content of rice malt accurately. Unlike temperature, it was difficult to obtain numerical data in real time, but STREAL solved this problem.
By installing four load cells embedded with STREAL under the rice malt box, the amount of water that changes in proportion to the weight of rice malt that becomes lighter during fermentation can be monitored at all times.
In 2020, Fukai and his colleague, Miho Yoshimura, started a demonstration experiment using a prototype for aiming introduction. After clarifying the correlation between the change in water content and the change in weight, they actually operated the prototype in the brewery and watched the rice malt production with the night-shift workers. Yoshimura said, "When I actually did it, I thought it was really hard work.
With the introduction of this technology, I hope sake breweries will become an attractive workplace for young people."
"In addition to its size and accuracy, the fact that it has a temperature correction circuit is one of the great things about STREAL. It is difficult to measure the exact amount of strain regardless of the temperature with conventional strain gauges,” said Fukai. He attempts to use the strengths of STREAL for other brewing processes.
This collaborative product combines Yanai Electric & Machinery's strengths in connection with the local industry with Glosel's sensor technology to preserve the traditional culture and the health of the workers in sake breweries.
Fukai said, "We can do things that are difficult to do with just one company if we work together and do what each of us is good at. There are about 1200 sake breweries in Japan, so we would like to start in Oita and expand nationwide to reform the way people work in sake brewing."
