Akiko Yoshinaga

• conducting the project regarding bitter acids by researching, analyzing and collaborating with other project members on the practical side
• organizing weekly sensory training for colleagues, such as learning and identifying aroma and flavor components, evaluating valid beers and beverages.
• researching and analyzing for the project regarding fatty acids

3.3 million HL/annually brewery in Belgium which has a unique technique, continuous brewhouse. There are two brewing sites.

• Overall control and improving the process and beer quality such as filterability of mash and beer, slower reduction of diacetyl, which are related to the combination of continuous brewhouse system, high gravity brewing, yeast strain and beer membrane filter
• Improving the beer taste by optimizing brewing and fermentation conditions which results in acquiring new clients
• Achieving the demanding beer quality such as 12 % alcohol with lagering yeast.

• Improving beer quality of existing recipes such as Belgian white beer and dry hopped beer
• Developing the new items such as German wheat beer, Belgian Abbey and Hard seltzer.

Fourth biggest brewing company in Japan which has 6 domestic breweries and produces in total 6 million HL annually at that time.

• Overall coordination and leading the brewing department such as technical subjects, arrangement of personnel, training assistant managers.

• Directing whole process of the microbrewery such as brewing, developing new recipes, managing the operational personnel, communicating with the customers.

• Gathering information about latest European brewing technology and culture by staying in Germany and visiting many breweries in Europe
• Auditing suppliers, barley and hop fields, approval of raw materials and new equipment.

• Overall control and optimizing the brewing process by following the daily production and beer quality, controlling raw materials and yeast, trouble shooting
• Finding out the problems and leading the projects to improve them such as increasing brewhouse yield by determining the best parameters of equipment, solving microbiological problems based on 7 QC tools
• Improving beer taste such as controlling the level of the esters by determining the critical factor for each yeast strain and recipe, optimizing brewing parameters
• Developing the recipes and achieving the design quality of new products in commercial scale based on recipes coming from pilot plant
• Installing and adjusting new equipment by considering the specification of equipment, schedule and roles of the team members, confirming the results
• Training the operational personnel such as sanitation, brewing chemistry and QC methods and assisting their activities such as 5S and KAIZEN.