How does the taste change when beer is aged in the sea?
At Shimizu Port in Shizuoka City, 200 bottles of beer that had been submerged in the sea for three and a half months were recovered, and the analysis of the ingredients will proceed in the future for the development of specialty beer.
A research group led by Akinori Goshi, a visiting associate professor at the Faculty of Oceanography, Tokai University in Shizuoka City, sought to investigate how the taste of beer changes when it is aged in the sea, with the cooperation of a local beer brewery. going.
On this day, at Shimizu Port in Shizuoka City, 200 bottles of craft beer that had been submerged at a depth of 3 to 4 meters were pulled into the sea.
Since it was at the bottom of the sea for about three and a half months, the bottle had shells and seaweed attached, but it was not affected by seawater entering.
Immediately, when I poured it into a glass and checked it, the color was darker and the foam seemed to be stronger.
There was more than normal sedimentation of yeast on the bottom of the bottle.
The taste is that I felt that the scent was getting stronger.
Mr. Koshi's group has been researching how the taste of wine and sake changes when they are submerged in the sea, but this is the first time they have tried it with beer.
Research so far has shown that the ingredients that make up the umami of wine and sake change, and that sensory tests, which are tested by the human sense of taste, have shown that wine and sake are mellower.
Mr. Koshi said, "Depending on how the fermentation progressed, it could turn sour, so I was half hopeful and half worried, but I'm glad that it seems to be changing in a positive way. I'm looking forward to developing it as a local product in the future. I'm doing it," he said.
In the future, the research group would like to analyze how the components of beer have changed, and to proceed with the development of specialty beer while adjusting the depth and duration of submersion.