6th Generation Brewer Sato Jumpei's Resume
My University Days: Part 4 ("TATENOKAWA" Newspaper 16/11/2012）
There is only one period from my university days when I can honestly say that I really took my study seriously. It was the period from the end of my third year up until the end of my fourth year, when I was studying in the research laboratory. My grades weren’t all that good, but by a stroke of luck I was assigned to the fermented production research lab of a Professor Koizumi Takeo who is famous for his fermentation related articles and writes a column in the Nikkei newspaper.
Prof. Koizumi seemed to be very busy, so much so that he was only ever present in the lab about once a week, but a lot of the students in the lab were fellow sons of sake breweries and shochu distilleries so it was a really fun year. Every month, after the laboratory presentations were out of the way, there would be a little friendly reunion where everyone would bring their family company’s sake or shochu, and while still just university students, we would appraise each other’s sake.
I researched 3 main study topics when I was in the lab: akumochizake (A type of Japanese sake manufactured by adding charcoal to the fermented unrefined sake), hiochi bacteria (a type of bacteria that can destroy a batch of sake) and a type of old-fashioned sake that was made with barley. With the help of historical records and literature, I test recreated sakes that were made during and before the Edo period in an attempt to discover the purpose behind the additions of ash and barley. The research itself only took an hour and did not produce particularly amazing results, but compared to the lukewarm study lifestyle of my first and second year it represented a change: working a strict 9-5 routine which made for a good workout.
6th Generation Brewer Sato Jumpei
