The 4th Regular Meeting of the Subculture Science Research Group: Sake and Wood

目次

Conversation style

R: Liquor and wood go hand in hand.

Tarky: Oh!

R: When you went to a brewery in Taiwan, you saw a row of sake barrels, right? It’s a common belief that whiskey tastes different depending on the wood of the barrel.

Tarky: Oh, weren’t they burned?

R: Even if it’s burned, some things soak in. And Quercus serrata is good. R: Even if it’s burned, there’s something that soaks in.

Tarky: Is it good?

R: I heard that it has the flavor of the tree. I’m not sure about that, but I’m interested.

Tarky: Do you think it’s good?

R: I’d like you to pass it around if you have contacts.

What we talked about

• Liquor and Wood
  • Whiskey barrels
    • Wood
      • Japanese cedar
      • Quercus serrata
    • Processed into barrels, burned on the inside, and then filled with a specific liquor.
      • Sherry barrels, barrels used to prepare wine?
        • Sweet
  • Wood is processed directly into drinking alcohol
    • Structure of wood
      • Cellulose and lignin
      • Equivalent to fibers and what hardens them, like reinforced concrete
      • Structural differences between cellulose and starch, etc.
        • Cellulose is bonded in a fibrous form
    • Lignin is not needed and we want to remove it
    • Previous methods
      • Lignin is dissolved by heating in sodium hydroxide solution.
    • Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute announced a technology for brewing alcohol from cellulose by fermentation¹.
      • They say it retains the flavor of the wood.
    • So what about in nature?
      • Fungi such as shiitake mushrooms
      • Termites have internal enzymes that digest wood².
      • Ants that grow mushrooms
    • Conversely, wood was not decomposed until the emergence of these organisms.
      • In the Coal Age, ferns did not decompose and remained as coal until the present day.
  • So is it possible to achieve carbon neutrality with this?
    • Bioethanol and Biodiesel
      • Bioethanol is a fuel
      • Biodiesel is for food
        • Diesel engines are internal combustion engines that can use rapeseed oil as fuel
    • Food supply and the state of the dilemma
      • Should we produce food in sugar cane fields to produce bioethanol?
    • There is a problem of increasing artificiality and food supply
  • As for sustainability and SDGs, I introduced the technology to produce alcohol directly from wood this time as a move to tackle it from the aspect of technological development.

Next time.

5th Regular Meeting of the Subculture Science Society NFT

R: I’ve recently become interested in something called NFT.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

See also

• Subculture Science Research Group the 6th meeting:　What is the point of football viewing?
• Subculture Science Research Group the 5th meeting　NFT
• Subculture Science Research Group Regular Meeting No.3 Wood for electric guitar or anything else?
• The 2nd Regular Meeting of Subculture Science Research Group Theme: Environmental DNA