japanese sake containing 19 ethanol and 35 ppm of urea and having a ph value of 4 1 and mash at the final stage of fermentation of bourbon whisky containing 8 5 of ethanol and 45 ppm of urea and having a ph value of 4 2 the conditions for urease treatment and the method of measuring the residual urea were the same as those employed in example 3 it was confirmed that the amount of the urea was reduced to a level below the limit of measurement within 48 hours the decomposition of the urea contained in japanese sake was tested by adding cells of the strain of the present invention to the japanese sake the cells of the strain used was obtained as follows one platinum loop of the strain was inoculated in the medium used for preparing the seed culture in example 1 and cultivated at 28 u00b0 c for 24 hours after centrifugation collected cells were washed with distilled water three times and concentrated to 10 times the original concentration so as to be suspended in the distilled water the japanese sake used was the same as that used in example 3 0 1 ml of the cell suspension was added to 10 ml of the japanese sake and the thus obtained mixture was then allowed to stand at 10 u00b0 c for 48 hours as a result the amount of urea in the japanese sake was reduced from an initial level of 31 ppm to a level below the limit 1 ppm of measurement 1 000 chitosan beads bcw 3013 produced by fuji spinning co ltd were added to 50 ml of an aqueous solution containing 5 0 mg.