Development Laboratories for Alcoholic Beverages

Asahi Breweries, Ltd. Development Laboratories for Alcoholic Beverages

Striving to create products that are sure to delight customers

We are engaged in the development of new products across product lines including beer and related products (beer, happoshu [low-malt beer], new genre, etc.), ready-to-drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages (chuhai, cocktails, etc.), shochu, wine, and non-alcohol beverages (beer-taste and cocktail-taste beverages, etc.). From small-scale production of prototypes to follow-up for mass production at breweries and distilleries, we are always striving to create products that are sure to delight customers.

Development of brewed alcoholic Development of RTD alcoholic Development of distilled beverages beverages alcoholic beverages When developing beer, wine and other For the development of canned chuhai and In the development of distilled alcoholic li- brewed alcoholic beverages, we produce cocktails, referred to as RTD alcoholic bev- quors such as shochu and spirits, a variety small batches of prototypes in a small-scale erages, we study techniques for preparing of factors and conditions need to be deter- plant to determine the flavor profile for the and blending ingredients such as fruit juice mined, from ingredient selection and pro- new product. Through this process, various and other flavoring agents to propose new cessing, yeast selection, as well as condi- factors and conditions will be determined flavors and meet the ever diversifying tions for wort preparation, fermentation, including the type and quantity of ingredi- tastes of consumers. We also explore and distillation, filtration, and maturation. New ents (malt, hop, grapes, etc.) to use, selec- evaluate new ingredients to create innova- product development entails the optimiza- tion of fermenting yeast, fermentation tem- tive flavors. tion of all these processes combined with perature and time, and so on. Trial batches the use of our sophisticated blending tech- are repeatedly produced and evaluated to niques. determine the optimal set of conditions from countless combinations of these conditions.

Research

Tastes like premium authentic beer! The development of Asahi the Rich, a new genre brand

“To tell the truth, I’d rather drink real beer, but I drink new continued to genre beer to save money” -- This is a voice we very often hear seek for new from customers and a challenge for us we wanted to overcome techniques, we for so many years. What makes beers attractive which new genre came to realize beers don’t have? To find an answer to this question, we did a through techni- thorough survey and listened to numerous customers’ opinions. cal exchange As a result, we found that customers are looking for a new genre with European beer brewers that the clue lay in the wort boiling beer that has “a rich malt flavor” embodying a premium feel and process. a touch of luxury, in other words “a new genre beer that tastes In the usual wort boiling process, the wort is thoroughly heat- and feels like premium authentic beer.” We therefore embarked ed to remove unpleasant odor and substances that may cause on a project to develop a new genre beer that offers something gushing problems and turbidity. We found out, however, that the more than a beer-like taste, but the high quality and deep more you boil the wort, the more the mellow aroma of the freshly satisfaction of a premium beer, which was no easy task. ground malt is lost. We therefore minimized the heat applied to We have already tried using a higher concentration of the the wort during the boiling process to make the most of the malt original extract or the finest hops in other products, which both aroma. Born by adopting this “minimum heat boiling technique”, gained high reputation, but we thought that the taste of a premi- Asahi the Rich has an irresistible malt flavor with deepness and um beer could not be achieved by following the same manufac- complexity like premium authentic beer, at a level that had never turing process as our previous new genre products. As we been achieved by other new genre products.