Archive for month: November, 2010

With a visit to Akita Seishu Sake Brewery, you really get two, two, two Breweries in one! You see Akita Seishu makes sake under two Brands in two facilities including both the Kariho and Dewatsuru labels.

I interviewed Mr. Yohei Ito of Dewatsuru back in February. After that interview, I was excited to see Akita Seishu for myself and now I had the chance.

When I arrived at Akita Seishu, I was able to briefly meet with the brewery President Mr. Tasturu Ito before getting a full tour of both facilities from Product Manager Mr. Sado and Brewery Employee Ms. Sasaki. We started in the Kariho facility where we toured the building and I was surprised by not only the beauty of the building but by the number of fune (‘boat-shaped’ or old fashioned style sake press) they had at Kariho. Sado-san and Sasaki-san went on to explain that the Kariho brand prides itself on the “six fune” they use to press ALL the sake for Kariho. It’s more labor intensive, but produces the taste they want. They even have a kariho sake named “Rokushu” or “six boats/fune” in honor of their pressing method.

After the Kariho tour and a short drive, we arrived at the Dewatsuru brewery facility. Right when entering the building there is a beautiful and seeming magical fountain flowing with “Shikomi Mizu” or the pure, natural brewing water piped down from the local mountains.

In addition to sizable koji, moto and moromi rooms, the Dewatsuru facility also has a large milling building that produces all the milled rice for the facility. After my tour, it was time to taste Dewatsuru which I really enjoyed. I actually noticed that Dewatsuru was widely distributed in Shops throughout Akita.

I thought my visit was winding down, but then we hopped in the car again to visit the bottling and again building in yet a third location. This large facility is where all Kariho and Dewatsuru is bottled, pasteurized and stored for shipping. How do they get the sake to the bottling? I was wondering the same thing… turns out the company owns a specially designed tanker truck used to transport all sake to this building!

What a day! Three sake facilities toured in one morning! My special thanks to the Ito family for receiving me so warmly and of course to Mr. Sado and Ms. Sasaki for taking me around, helping me learn so much and for the wonderful tastings too!

Another stop on my whirlwind tour of Japan was the magnificent Tenju Sake Brewery. I was greeted at the brewery entrance by Mr. Takeshi Ohi, the brewery President, and his younger brother Mr. Hitoshi Ohi, the brewery’s Managing Director.

Tenju is a sake brewery situated at the foot of Mount Chokai, one of the prominent mountains in this region of Akita prefecture and also the name sake of their famous sake brand “Chokaisan“. It’s the soft, pure water from the snows of Mount Chokai that gives their sake is silky body and very light minerality.

The Ohi brothers welcomed me into the Brewery and we started off by sitting down and enjoying a delicious lunch together along with some equally delicious Tenju sake. After a great conversation about the sake industry, sake consumers in the U.S., and a good dash of humor thrown in for fun, we headed out the the adjacent brewery facility for a tour.

As we toured their facility, I saw repeated examples of this brewery’s respect for tradition, but also their love of learning and innovation. Founded in 1874 and operating for 6 generations, Tenju has a lot of tradition to build upon, but in their love of research and education, they are also pushing the envelope to improve their sake.

Along the brewery tour, I saw a number of cutting edge machines that assist and improve sake production process such as one contraption that aids in quickly drying rice that has just been soaked, or these specially designed tanks that aid in moisture absorption of newly milled rice. They also had a tank in their Junmai Daiginjo brewing area that must be what I would call the “rolls royce” of sake brewing tanks… it’s a gorgeous, climate controlled, water insulated, stainless steel tank that has a rounded bottom and internal blades for automated stirring. A thing of beauty!

In addition to technology, Tenju also innovates with research. Examples of this include the Tenju Research Group, which is a consortium of rice farmers lead by the brewery that meet regularly to work together and share their data to improve their rice crops from year to year. I also learned about the special flower yeasts that Tenju has cultivated over the years. These yeasts give a flowery fresh and really delicious taste to Tenju sakes.

Tenju Brewery is currently importing two sakes into the USA. Their award winning and bestselling flagship product is the well loved Tenju Chokaisan Junami Daiginjo. This is an elegant, aromatic and balanced gem of a junmai daiginjo. Those flower yeasts mentioned earlier really come to bare in the brew. Accessible, delicious and oh-so-easy to enjoy, Chokaisan Junmai Daiginjo is a scrumptious sake that always pleases. The new Chokaisan on the block is their Tenju Chokaisan Junmai Ginjo Nigori. This nigori is all about texture and mouth-feel. With the signature wonderful balance of their other sakes, I predict this entry will be a hit with U.S. consumers, too.

My sincere thanks to Takeishi and Hitoshi Ohi and their lovely wives for making me feel so welcome and at home at their beautiful and historic brewery. Even though the rain and fog didn’t allow me to see the summit of Mount Chokai during this trip, I know now, I only have to reach for a bottle of Chokaisan sake if I want to taste the pure essence of this beautiful part of Akita!

My next stop in Japan was at the Naba Sake Brewery in Akita City, Japan. On a very rainy and cold Akita afternoon, I was welcomed to the Naba Sake brewery by its COO, Mr. Hisashi Naba. Mr. Naba was a youthful and engaging guide to his brewery.

Upon arriving at the brewery, he first called to my attention, the unique concrete construction of the building. Once we were inside the brewery itself, I came to realize the very unique construction of this brewery building.

Constructed in the early part of the 20th century, the solid and large building is cast in concrete with subtle art deco detailing in staircases and archways. Rooms were planned in a logical order that allows the steamed rice to get quickly and easily to the koji, moromi or moto rooms. When built, the building also featured a then state-of-the-art-amenity that the brewery workers must have loved: an elevator which is still in service and still transporting rice and workers!

Naba Sake Brewery currently only exports Yamahai sake to the US and this is a style that very well represents their brand. If you want to get a feel for this Akita City gem, pick up one of their sakes. A good place to start would be their Horoyoi Yamahai Junmai Ginjo which is a delicious Junmai Ginjo made using the Yamahai yeast starter method. They also offer two robust futsushu style sakes in the U.S. : one is the Minato Harbor Tsuchizaki Yamahai Futsushu and the hearty Minato Harbor Tsuchizaki Yamahai Nama Genshu Futsushu

You can also check out the ASPEC sake website to learn more about Naba sakes. I’d like to thank Mr. Naba for taking the time to introduce me to his brewery and his delicious sake.

My next stop in Japan was Ichishima Sake Brewery, located in Shibata City, Niigata. I’ve known the current brewery President, the young and dynamic Kenji Ichishima for several years now. Ichishima-san is the current leader of the Sake Brewer’s Association Junior Council / Sake Samurai organization where I first met him in 2007.

He is the descendant of a sake brewing family steeped in tradition that dates back over 200 years, but he has also spent considerable time abroad and in addition to speaking fluent English, he also understands the dynamic of western cultures. This all adds up to a very interesting Kuramoto-san who can speak equally well to his native Japanese and western customers.

Another point that makes Ichishima-san unique is the variety of sake he’s chosen to export to the States. Currently over 10 kinds of sake are exported from Futsushu to special award-winning Daiginjo, Ichishima Brewery selections allow you to taste a wide and diverse sampling of styles from their famous Kura. You can view the Ichishima Sake portfolio here.

When I arrived in Shibata, Ichishima-san greeted me at the train station which is just a short walk from his Brewery building. He was kind enough to give me a personal tour and we started in the interesting Ichishima Sake museum. The museum is comprised of several rooms that house artifacts from the Ichishima family from over 200 years in the sake brewing business. There were antique sake barrels and wooden sake making tools of every size and description. Other rooms had sake cups and porcelain along with family documents and kimonos – everything was beautiful and really gave me a taste of what life may have looked like at the brewery a few hundred years ago.

Next I toured the brewery facility and Ichishima-san showed me the entire production process from rice steaming and washing to koji making and drying to brewing and storing. The brewery building takes a vertical approach with steaming and washing on the top floors and brewing on the lower floors so that sake can easily be transported down once steamed and processed. After the brewery tour, I visited the gorgeous store and tasting room which is housed in the original Edo Period brewing room with it’s majestic hand hewn beams. really stunning.

Equally stunning was the view from Ichishima’s home which looked out onto a fantastic japanese garden. Ichishima-san gave me a taste of their current hit sake, the Ichishima Umeshu or plum sake. It was lightly sweet and balanced and a perfect cap to the afternoon. My sincere thanks to Ichishima-san for taking the time to welcome me so graciously and with such generosity.

My next stop this autumn in Japan is a small town in Niigata called Kamo. I met Megumi Yamazaki on twitter, and she introduced herself as someone who runs a sake shop in Japan.

I was excited to see how sake is sold outside the big city so I took a day and made a detour to Kamo! And boy am I glad I did. Yamazaki-san welcomed me graciously and quickly gave me a tour of her nice shop. She introduced me to several local brands and told me that the bestseller in her shop was a local futsushu sold by the ishobin. We also discussed the current crop of delicious hiyaoroshi style sakes that were in stock now – again, almost all from the local area!

After the shop tour, Megumi took me to meet a local sake producer! more on that soon…

Oh by the way, Megumi is super plugged in! You can find her promoting sake all over the web:
Website: http://www.yamazakisaketen.com/
Blog: http://jizake.exblog.jp/15358890/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/yamazakisaketen/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yamazakisaketen
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/yamazakisaketen

I really enjoyed my visit to this shop and my sincere thanks to Yamazaki-san for welcoming me so completely! Check out these pics from my visit to Yamazaki sake shop!