Color of dried Sake lees

Abstract

　 Sake lees are generated in the process of producing Sake and are marketed in paste form with a water content of about 51%. I hypothesized that the storage stability and processing usability of Sake lees would be improved if they were dehydrated instead. To test our hypothesis, I examined the colour of dried Sake lees. When three colours of Sake lees––yellowish white, ochre, and brown––were air-dried at 50°C for 84 hours, all of them became darker-coloured. When various amounts of the dried Sake lees were dissolved, the aqueous solution supernatants of the dried yellowish white Sake lees had the same maximum absorption wavelength in the absorption spectrum, as measured by a spectrophotometer, regardless of the dissolved amount. However, in the aqueous solution supernatant of dried brown Sake lees, the maximum absorption wavelength of the absorption spectrum shifted to the longer wavelength side as the amount of dissolution increased. In the 12.0g / 100ml aqueous solution that had the largest amount of dissolved dried brown Sake lees, the colour of the supernatant was dark brown. The colour of Sake lees changed before and after drying, and when the dried Sake lees were dissolved in water, the colour of the aqueous solution supernatant differed depending on the amount of Sake lees dissolved.