Raspberry Pi in Alcohol Brewing Modernizing Craft Processes with IoT

I talked at HKOSCON26 about sake with AI -we could make sake with AI, but it needs helps by Toji - brew meister to brew especially in its fermentation process. AI cannot behave like Toji - the detailed human behaviors.

Transcript

1. Raspberry Pi in Alcohol Brewing: Modernizing Craft Processes with IoT Masafumi Ohta @HKOSCON26 in HongKong
2. Review: AI may not imitate Handmake why sake/wine/craft beer are not made by 'Robots Masafumi Ohta @HK Track @COSCUP25
3. Masafumi Ohta Founder and Representative Japanese Raspberry Pi Users Group Leading the Raspberry Pi community in Japan and supporting business adoption of Raspberry Pi across the Asian region.
4. NOT present about ‘Raspberry Pi’ today..
5. Talking about my new business..
6. How important ‘visible hand’ is..
8. ‘Sake handmake culture tour’ as my side business
11. Shortage of master brewers • Some breweries do not have such masters, employ them as part-time workers in the brewing season ( mainly in Winter) • Some breweries ask such masters to inherit his/her knowledges to other employees. • Some breweries have replaced ‘traditional master role’ with Computer Systems for brewing.
12. Soaring prices and shortage of sake rice • Amid the extreme, ongoing surge in rice prices since last year, some farmers have started switching production from sake rice to table rice. • Since sake rice is already produced in far smaller volumes than table rice, this shift has caused sake rice prices to soar and made it hard to obtain. • More breweries are now making sake from table rice, relying even more heavily on the master brewer's skill.
14. Dassai • Analysing the entire sake brewing process using data, and in particular, we manage the fermentation process by monitoring and optimizing ideal fermentation curves with the latest IT technologies. • It doesn't rely on the intuition of the master brewer, its quality remains consistent.
15. Dassai might be made by AI..?
16. Sake might be made by AI..?
18. Hana Ginjo Ginpu Ginjo sake brewed with Ginpu (sake rice)
19. Junmai Muroka Akitakomachi Unfiltered Junmai sake, Akitakomachi (table rice)
20. Arabashiri Akitakomachi First-press sake, Akitakomachi (table rice)
21. Fermentation process is the important to brew • Sake is brewed by saccharifying rice using koji mold to produce a mash called moromi, which is then fermented with yeast. The ability to manage the fermentation curve is one of the most critical aspects of the brewing process. * Saccharify / Saccharification: The process of converting starch into fermentable sugars using enzymes. * Koji: A type of mold (Aspergillus oryzae) used in Japanese fermentation to break down starches. * Mash: A wet mixture of grain and water that undergoes saccharification and fermentation; in sake brewing, refers to 'moromi’. * Moromi: The fermentation mash in sake brewing containing rice, water, koji, and yeast.
22. Yamada-nishi-based Daiginjo is ideal sake • There is already a well-defined image of what a “good” daiginjo should be, so fermentation curves tend to follow the same predictable pattern. • Yamada Nishiki is ideal for making sake with a consistent flavor — it is easy to control during fermentation. • However, because the process is so predictable, it is difficult to bring out unique characteristics in sake made this way.
23. Others.. try and error by brewery masters
24. Try and error.. • Countless parameters — water temperature, room temperature, weather, and more — interact with one another throughout brewing, requiring constant manual adjustment and careful monitoring of the fermentation process. • Table rice is often used in sake brewing, but even with the same variety the results can differ significantly — as seen in the brewing logs on the previous slides. • This is where the skills of the Toji—the master brewer—are truly put to the test.
26. Yamada-nishi-daiginjo may be predicted Others is far more difficult to be predicted
27. Sake-making stays handcrafted. So where does DX fit in?
30. Where DX is actually used • Temperature & humidity sensors ‐ Precise control and continuous monitoring of fluctuations • Temperature & humidity analysis ‐ Data analysis to optimize fermentation curve • Drones & surveillance cameras ‐ Brewery monitoring and intruder / anomaly detection • Remote equipment control ‐ Applying Home IoT principles
33. DIY IoT at the Vineyard Kikushima, Yamanashi
34. Low-cost sensor box – ‘Poor Farmer's IoT System’
35. Why temperature & humidity matter for wine-grapes • Chemical spray use depends on climate ‐ Spray volume is driven by temperature and humidity; too much spray ruins grape flavor, so growers need precise data to minimize use — some now go chemical-free. • Global warming makes grape-growing harder ‐ Rising heat and humidity worldwide are making wine grapes harder and more expensive to cultivate. • Low-cost monitoring is now essential ‐ Affordable sensing, analysis, and spray-adjustment have become critical capabilities for modern vineyards.
36. How about others?
41. Complex ‘parameters’ (like blending) that cannot understand by AI, still need human process.
42. Deliciousness(おいしい) varies from person to person, difficult for AI to perform
43. A≠B/A then not B may not be predicted A=B/A then B may be predicted
44. Next step
45. Sake tour (in Tokyo) deep-diving the process of sake production for oversea visitors to Japan
47. Another sake tour (in Tokyo, the beginning of next year?)
48. Do androids dream of electric sheep?
49. AI is still for predictable thing gathering the present big data. AI is still the frond of the door toward to unpredictable future. AI needs human helps to check/work well,
50. Conclusion • The process of sake brewing is still complex, so almost all the process is carried out by human. • Sake breweries might introduce AI-based automation in the sake brewing process if they use Yamada-Nishiki-daiginjo-based sake. • Brew masters will not lose the job yet because of their knowledges especially in the fermentation process. • Whiskey, Wine, and other alcohols are same – they still cannot omit the human process (in the process of brewing or..) • Recent surges and shortages in sake rice are pushing breweries toward brewing with table rice, increasing reliance on the master brewer's skill.
51. Special thanks to: • Koichi Maesako-san of Ishikawa brewery in Tokyo, who is the brew master at the brewery. • Kuncho brewery in Hita, Oita, provide the great handmade sake.
52. Questions?
53. Huge Thanks to attendees Masafumi Ohta mailto:Masafumi@pid0.org