Sake Blossoms: On a late winter morning in Kyoto you can find delicate flakes on a stone pavement and pause to investigate whether they are snow or plum petals. Of course the presence of a penetrating fragrance tips you off. Several years ago, while walking my dog on a snowy night, at the gate of a neighborhood temple, with sake waiting at home, I plucked a few blossoms from a plum tree. I discovered that the delicate fragrance goes extremely well with fine sake. Floating a blossom in some chilled sake has become a late winter ritual for me.

I couldn’t help commemorating this year’s sake and ume with a major photoshoot in my garden. Unfortunately there was no snow. I used two bottles of my favorite sake from Uehara Sake Brewery; Furosen Muroka Nama Genshu Yamahai Junmai Daiginjo Kidaru Jikomi and Soma-no-tengu Tenbin Shibori Nama Genshu. (I recently visited the brewery and will tell you more about their sake soon.)

I really hope that you like the photos! Lots of comments please!

Ume Blossom Floating in Furosen Sake

My Favorite Sake in the Whole Wide World: Furosen

The bottle on the left is Furosen (不老泉) Muroka Nama Genshu Yamahai Junmai Daiginjo Kidaru Jikomi, I think that this must be the sake served in heaven. So far, it is the best sake that I have discovered. Soma-no-tengu (杣の天狗), on the right, is very good too, also from the same brewery.
The sticker on the bottle neck that says, 要冷蔵 which means ‘requires refrigeration’, that is how you know it is real sake: nama genshu.

Ume Blossom Floating in Furosen Sake

Furosen and Soma-no-tengu Nama Genshu and Ume Blossoms

Furosen and Soma-no-tengu Nama Genshu and Ume Blossoms

Furosen and Soma-no-tengu Nama Genshu and Ume Blossoms

Ume Blossoms – Detail

Here in Kyoto it is late winter and the ‘ume’ plums are in bloom now. The blossoms come in white, pink and dark reddish purple. Japan and Kyoto are better known for ‘sakura’ cherry blossoms, which are very nice, but I prefer the ume plums. Ume blooms when it is still winter, if you are lucky you can see ume blossoms in the snow, I have only seen that a few times. It is among the most beautiful things that I have experienced. The smell of fresh snow and ume blossoms, the unlikely contrast of snow and flowers, and sometimes even a few hardy and enterprising bees buzzing around it is all more than one can easily dream up. But, alas, fact is often stranger than fiction – and tastier!

The Sake
・Furosen Muroka Nama Genshu Yamahai Junmai Daiginjo Kidaru Jikomi
・Soma-no-tengu Tenbin Shibori Nama Genshu
Both are produced by Uehara Shuzo Sake Brewery in neighboring Shiga prefecture. Furosen is the brand name and means ‘fountain of youth’ because the water that they use to make their sake naturally bubbles up out of the ground.

What is Ryorishu? Japanese Cooking Sake かくし味 料理酒

Ryorishu: Literally, ‘Cuisine Alcohol’
The brand name, Kakushi-aji has a double meaning, I think. Kakusu means to be hidden or secret. This cooking sake is generally only sold to exclusive restaurants which are sometimes called kakure-ga (hidden, or secret house). In Kyoto, some exclusive restaurants don’t even have a sign. The other meaning could be that as this is very high quality cooking sake, it is a secret ingredient in the dishes that it is used in.

When I visited Uehara Brewery, they treated me to kikizake, or sake tasting and I was also given a taste of their ryorishu. Normally you cannot enjoy drinking ryorishu straight. This was good though, it tasted like a light sake. The color is light golden in color and it tastes better than a lot of drinking sake that I have had. I am especially looking forward to using this sake for nizakana (fish simmered in sweetened soy sauce) because of the delicate taste and absence of salt.

Ryorishu has a low milling ratio, only about 80-90%, so while it wouldn’t have the refined taste for drinking, you get a much bigger and complex taste that can stand up to cooking and other tastes like sugar, soy sauce and so on. I hadn’t realized that before.

Cooking Sake: Kakushi-aji Ryorishu from Uehara Sake Brewery

The label reads, from right to left; 本格 authentic, かくし味 ‘hidden’ taste, 料理酒 cooking sake.

I just tasted this again and compared it to the cooking sake we usually use, which I think is not bad stuff. We buy it at a liquor store and it isn’t cheap. The Uehara Brewery’s is fairly fruity and drinkable. The other has a sake smell to it, but the taste is all salt. I guess on fish, chicken, etc that isn’t real fresh and you need lots of salt anyway, the regular ryorishu is probably ok. You’re going to have to cook the heck out of it anyway! For fresh fish and vegetables, especially cooking ‘Kyoto’ style, the Uehara Brewery ryorishu would leave you much more room to build the flavors of the dish the way you like. For example, emphasize taste and freshness of the ingredients, not salt!

Cheap cooking sake usually has enough salt in it that you don’t need to add any additional salt to the dish that you are cooking. That is quite a bit!

Ryorishu is quite similar to Western white cooking wine, it is of course made with rice, rather than grapes though. It is used to marinades and sauces. In order to sell ryorishu in grocery stores, salt is added, several percent by volume. This is required by law. This is fine for cooking if you want or need a good deal of salt in the dish. We use quite a bit of ryorishu in our home cooking, probably 2 or 3 liters per month. We end up not using very little additional salt. Generally, that is fine, but the quality of the salt that goes into cheap ryorishu is surely not very good, it is likely not natural sea salt. For subtly flavored dishes, you might not want to use salt, so high quality cooking sake like this is desirable.

Miwa on Cooking Sake and Mirin
Both ryorishu and mirin ‘kill’ any bad odors in fish and meat. They also help the flavors of the ingredients uses in the dish to ‘sink in’ to the fish, meat, etc. Of course, it gives a nice smell too.

Mirin is sweet cooking sake. It gives dishes a nice sheen, especially sauteed dishes, because it has glucose sugar in it. (Fructose sugar and cooking sake will not produce the same effect.)

Cooking sake softens meat, brings out the depth of flavor of the ingredients and adds a pleasant fragrance to the dish.

Hannari Brand Umeshu: The tastes of Kyoto are subtle and refined, this umeshu was designed to be hannari, or delicate. In addition to classic umeshu, there are four imaginatively ‘Kyoto’ flavored versions; cinnamon, yuzu, green tea and shiso.

As foodies well know, fine ingredients make for fine tastes. Kitagawa Honke produces its own rice shochu for its umeshu. The shochu, straight out of the still is 35.5% alcohol, shochu sold retail is 25%. As the ume extract and sugar will significantly lower the alcohol content of the finished umeshu, 35% is considered the minimum. The finished product will be about 15%. Lower alcohol content can allow fermentation and spoil the liqueur.

Kitagawa Honke Hannari Brand Umeshu

Hannari Umeshu (はんなり梅酒): Hannari umeshu is made with rice shochu that has been aged 2 years, then after steeping nearly ripe ume fruit for 9 months, the umeshu is aged for 1 year. This process produces umeshu that is complex in flavor and mellow.

Yatsuhashi Umeshu (八ッ橋梅酒): Yatsuhashi is a popular Kyoto omiyage (souvenir). It comes in a myriad of forms and flavorings, but it always includes sweetened mochi that has been flavored with cinnamon, which was a very unusual spice in Japan. This umeshu is flavored with cinnamon! We have never heard of this before. Wow, this is not only clever and imaginative, it tastes very good too!

Nigori Yuzu Umeshu (にごり柚子梅酒): Yuzu, the lemony Japanese citron we have talked a lot about on KyotoFoodie quite a bit last winter. Here the yuzu juice is nigori, or cloudy, unfiltered. (Unfiltered sake is called nigorizake.) Yuzu umeshu is fairly common and this is best rendition I have had of it. Very, very nice!

Uji Gyokuro Umeshu (宇治玉露梅酒): Now here is a masterpiece! Gyokuro is very high quality green tea which Uji, in the south of Kyoto produces. Gyokuro flavors the umeshu which is blended with umeshu made from sake, not shochu. The umeshu is a very gentle background taste with an unbelievably astringent gyokuro green tea flavor raging above it. I have had green tea umeshu before, it was sweet and juice-like. I was stunned when I first tried this umeshu. It is not unlike maccha! As an aperitif or digestif, this is sure to blow guests away! This is a DO NOT miss if you are in Kyoto.

Ohara Shiso Umeshu (大原紫蘇梅酒): In the North Mountains above Kyoto, the village of Ohara is famous for its production of shiso that is usually used in tsukemono, Japanese pickles. Ripe shiso, which is a reddish purple adds a delicious taste and vibrant color to this umeshu. At a recent party at my house, the gals finished a bottle of this umeshu in a flash. I guess this is one of those flavors that is especially popular with ladies.

‘Kiki’ in the Lab

Kiki – Shochu Tasting with Tashima Toji (Brewmaster)

Tashima Toji gave me two kinds of shochu to taste. One is fresh out of the still, this year’s production and the other is aged 3 years. The fresh stuff was pretty rough around the edges, but the aged shochu, though high-powered was drinkable straight at room temperature. The difference that aging makes was obvious to me.

Reference: Green Ume

These were in the lab, they are the typical unripe, green ume. These are from Joyo, a suburb south of Kyoto. I think that they are planning top secret 梅酒R&D with them. Green ume typically produce umeshu that it sweet, but not especially complex.

Over at Okinaya

Kitagawa Honke operates this small store on the main street, next to the river where their sake and good rice can be purchased. We introduced this store in this article about learning to make sake. (map and photos at the bottom of the post)

Ume and Umeshu Lineup

On the left is a bag of ume that was used to make umeshu. These make great snacks! In the middle, the jar contains a generous amount of ume and umeshu. The small jars on the right are about a single serving of umeshu and contain no fruit. These are all Hannari brand.

Ume in Umeshu

Ume in jar detail.

Hannari Umeshu

This is the classic, unflavored umeshu, available in 1.8 liter and 720ml bottles with no fruit.

Hannari Umeshu ‘Kyoto’ Flavors

From left to right; yatsuhashi (cinnamon), yuzu, gyokuro (green tea) and shiso.

The Series
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 1
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 2

Umeshu: Japanese plums, called ume (梅) are mainly used to flavor alcohol and vinegar and to make the incredible umeboshi, pickled plum. In early summer, it is popular to make ume flavored alcohol, called umeshu (梅酒) at home, but we were fortunate enough to get to learn from the pros this year.

Our friends and KyotoFoodie fans at Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery showed Peko how they make their one-of-a-kind, Hannari (はんなり) brand ‘Kyoto style’ umeshu.

Umeshu (梅酒)
To make umeshu, the ume fruit are steeped in shochu (焼酎) for 6-9 months. The shochu is quite strong, 35% alcohol, but the finished umeshu is usually less than 15%. The shochu draws out the ume extract, ume extract combined with the sugar halves the alcohol content. If steeped longer than 6-9 months, the shochu will start to leach out the bitterness of the ume pits. After removing the fruit, umeshu can then be consumed or aged.

Umeshu is not fermented, therefore it is NOT ‘plum wine’. It is a liqueur.

The steeped ume fruit can be eaten and are sweet and tasty, yet quite intoxicating. It is common at New Year’s and other family gathering occasions in Japan to see some children red-faced and buzzing thanks to Grandpa fishing a few ume out of the jar for them to eat.

Now there are many kinds of umeshu available, many combining novel ingredients but it is always sweet and plum fruity. In the winter umeshu is excellent served with hot water and in the summer on ice or with soda water.

Umeshu is often made of the green ume fruit, however Kitagawa Honke uses fruit that are slightly more ripe, being more yellow in color. This creates a mellower and more full-bodied, complex flavor. (More about Hannari brand umeshu in part 2, and the recipe in an upcoming homecooking article.)

Umeshu Production Process
The process for making umeshu is quite simple.

1. De-stem the ume fruit.
2. Check quality, remove any overly ripe or rotten fruit.
3. Wash
4. Place in container with sugar and alcohol (35% by volume).
5. Seal container and place in a cool, dark place for aging.

Ume Season
The ume is in the plum family, but it is actually more closely related to apricot than what Westerns would usually think of as a plum. In the Kyoto region ume blossom in later winter, usually February. If you are lucky, you can see ume blossoms in the snow! The fruit is mature by early summer and often used when green and unripe.

Wakayama Prefecture, to the south-east of Kyoto produces the best ume in Japan. Vitually any high quality ume product in Japan uses ume from Wakayama, or Kishu (紀州) as it was once called. Kitagawa Honke selects ume from Kinan (紀南), which is the southern most part of Wakayama. The warm, mild climate makes for excellent ume.

Sake is made during the cold months so the brewery is not so busy in the summer, however in mid-June, when the ume are in season there is a 10 day flurry of activity when umeshu is made. Early every morning several tons of ume arrive and the fruit are sorted and de-stemmed. In addition to the kurabito (brewery workers) crew, the warehouse crew and the employees that work in the office walk down the street to the brewery and help out. All of this work in finished in the morning. After lunch, the kurabito crew wash the ume and place them in tanks with shochu and sugar.

Shochu
In Japan there are numerous kinds of shochu. The most common shochu are distilled from sweet potato, barley or rice. Many other ingredients are used now; soba, black sugar (kokuto 黒糖), sesame — even milk!

Kitagawa Honke makes the shochu that is used in their umeshu, and as they are a sake brewery, they make it from rice. Rice shochu is fairly close to vodka in taste.

As I approached the brewery this morning, the fragrance of ume fruit was heavy in the neighborhood!

Making Umeshu at Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery

Crates of Nicely Ripened Ume

All Hands on Deck

70 Crates of Ume

Seventy crates of ume today to sort and de-stem.

De-stemming and Sorting Ume

Everyone in the company joins in, even the ‘suits’!

De-stemming and Sorting Ume

De-stemming Ume – Before and After

The stems are plucked out with a simple needle-like metal instrument.

De-stemming and Sorting Ume

The ume on the left are ‘B’ quality, they have some bruises and blemishes, the ume on the right are ‘A’ quality. When the umeshu is finished, the ‘A’ quality ume will be added to bottles or bagged and sold separately for eating. ‘B’ quality ume taste just fine. (see part 2)

Weighing Ume

The de-stemmed and sorted ume are carefully weighed in preparation to adding to the tanks.

Hues of Ume

From green to yellow, orange and even red, this variety of color produces a more complex flavored umeshu than the usual unripened green fruit. More precision and labor is required, but the quality of the end result is obvious.

Final Check

Two tanks, differing in size will be filled today. Brewmaster Tashima (left) oversees the final check of the recipe and crate count for each tank. The shochu and sugar has already been added.

Washing Ume

The ume absorb water which will affect the taste of the umeshu, so they have to be washed quickly, and of course, thoroughly. Kitagawa Honke uses rather ripe ume fruit, so they are easily bruised by the mechanical brushes in the washing machine. The ume are washed for just 35 seconds.

Washing Ume

As the ume spin on the cylindrical brushes, one of the crew hoses them with Fushimi water.

Washing Ume

After washing, the ume are returned to clean crates then allowed to drain but not quite dry for about 20 minutes. Excess water can cause the umeshu to spoil later.

Steeping Ume

The ume are lifted with the forklift then unceremoniously dumped into the tank.

Steeping Ume

Steeping Ume

I love this shot! And, I got splashed taking it!

Steeping Ume

The ume are all submerged in shochu and then the tank is covered. See you in the springtime, ume.

The Series
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 1
Learning to Make Umeshu: Part 2

Taue (田植) means rice planting, or properly, rice transplanting as seedlings are first grown in a protected area such as a greenhouse and then transplanted to the rice paddy. Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery (Learning to Make Sake series) contracts with rice farmers in several regions to grow rice to their specifications. I was invited to participate in the annual rice planting and barbecue gathering. There was a torrential downpour most of the day, but we had a great time and made new friends.

Breaking (Gold Medal) News
On May 22, 2008, Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery won yet another gold medal at the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyokai (全国新酒鑑評会), National Sake Awards, sponsored by the National Research Institute of Brewing.

Congratulations to everyone at Kitagawa Honke!!

Taue
Properly, taue is very serious business in Japan. When Paku saw these pictures she didn’t like the idea of having a barbecue afterward. Of course, the reason being that traditionally, growing rice was a matter of survival in Japan. Life and death. Even today, to leave a bowl of rice with even a few grains uneaten is very, very bad form.

Never-the-less, we city slickers (employees, friends and family of Kitagawa Honke) went up to rural Kyoto on a chartered bus and experienced rice planting. And of course, no gathering in Japan would be complete without accompanying food and drink. So after planting in the rain and hosing the mud off of ourselves, we barbecued in the greenhouse. So despite the downpour, we were able to party unabated.

We just planted a very small corner of the paddy and some city kids got to experience what surely the vast majority of Japanese that ever lived made their living by – the cultivation of rice.

Attire
The flooded rice paddy, under just a few centimeters of standing water is a wonderful squishy ooze of greasy muck. The muck will suck shoes and most other footwear off in one step and going barefoot is not advised for city slickers as there is sometimes the odd shard of broken glass in the mud. Therefore, the recommended footwear is two pair of heavy socks. Socks stay on despite the muck and if a piece of glass is encountered, the muck underfoot is softer than sock/human flesh, so it will just sink further into the muck, not your foot. Several of our party, veterans of previous years, went barefoot and without incident.

How To
Taue is pretty simple, you just tear off a chunk of 2 or 3 seedlings from a sod-like mat and plop it into the muck. One of the main ideas here is to plant them in rows that are straight, but our crew didn’t do very well on this point. I looked down at the corner of the paddy that we planted after we all had exited and it looked like it might have been planted by drunks, but the truth is, we (the adults of course) hadn’t had any sake yet.

Though Japanese rice paddies are generally quite small, modern taue is an automated process done by a small, swimming tractor that plants the seedlings in neat and tidy rows.

Rice Planting in the Rain

That’s yours truly in the red t-shirt.

Rice Planting in the Rain

Rice Planting in the Rain

Rice Planting in the Rain

The smiling man in the blue raincoat is Tashima Toji, the sake brewmaster of Kitagawa Honke.

Rice Planting in the Rain – Mud

That gob of muck contains my foot!

Rice Planting in the Rain

Barbecue
After planting we walked up to one of the greenhouses, still half covered in seedlings for our barbecue.

Green House

Rows of seedlings are of two varieties.

Yamada Nishiki (山田錦) Seedlings

You will probably remember Yamada Nishiki from the Learning to Make Sake series. Yamada Nishiki is the primo rice variety in Japan for making sake.

Gold Medal Sake

Brewmaster Tashima opening a bottle of the Daiginjo sake that won the gold at the Shinshu Kanpyokai as president and owner Mr. Kitagawa looks on.

Gold Medal Sake – Kampai!

Now get this; it turns out that I helped wash the rice for the production lot that won the gold! They kindly, — jokingly, I am sure — attributed a portion of their success to my washing.

Gold Medal Sake – Swish Swish … Ummm!!

Can’t beat this daigijo! Super fruity!!

Onigiri (Rice Balls)
The rice balls were made of rice grown by our host and just flavored with a bit of salt. Usually, I prefer onigiri at least wrapped in nori and better yet, flavored with interesting ingredients. But these onigiri were great! Plain with just a bit of salt illustrated the difference between regular rice and really tasty rice!

Onigiri (Rice Balls)

Japanese love onigiri!

Onigiri

Onigiri with Takuan Pickle

Readying Sake

Japanese Beef on the Barbecue

The Host, Mr. Kawakita

Kawakita-san – Nextgen Farmer

Kawakita-san is the owner and operator of the farm. He grows rice for eating (shokumai 食米), sake rice (sakemai 酒米) and Kyoto’s famed kamonasu eggplants (賀茂茄子). The carrots and Italian parsley he is holding are just for his own consumption.

Kawakita-san explained to me in great detail about the finer points of kamonasu and pulled and picked some tasty leaves and roots from the narrow strips of earth that separate the rice paddies for me to try. I hope that we will be able to do an article about him in the future here on KyotoFoodie.

Onions

Washing Carrots and Italian Parsley

Kawakita-san checking the progress of the carrot washing. The kids passed muster and the carrots went to the grill.

Kamonasu

The kamonasu has been sliced and scored, and next go the the eat. But don’t grill eggplant! Cook it in oil.

Cooking Kamonasu in Oil

Cooking Kamonasu in Oil

photo credit: Thanks to Mr Kitagawa for snapping the photos of Peko in the rice paddy.

Kikizake: A very large tasting event was held featuring premium sake breweries and shochu distilleries over the weekend which Peko was lucky enough to attend.

Just over the East Mountains from Kyoto is Otsu City. Otsu is the capital of modern day Shiga Prefecture and was the capital of Japan 500 years BEFORE Kyoto became the capital! Otsu, situated on the southern end of Lake Biwa is an historic city with many delicacies and the area makes an excellent day trip from Kyoto. This kikizake event was held at the Otsu Prince Hotel.

With 108 breweries and distilleries attending, there is plenty to drink. Complimentary boxes of bread (served like popcorn in a movie theater) and bottled water tables helps the visitors drink-a-plenty!

I went with an old friend, a prof from undergraduate school, that arrived in Japan just the day before. I was invited by Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery (article series). I told my guest that sake is made from just rice, water and koji. As we tasted the offerings of sake, he was incredulous at the variety of flavors and fragrances could be produced with just the three ingredients.

Quite a Crowd!

There were several thousand visitors tasting all kinds of excellent sake and shochu.

Matsunotsukasa Brewery – Tasting Fine Sake

Upon recommendation of Mr. Kitagawa of Kitagawa Honke Sake Brewery, we tried most of the offerings of Matsunotsukasa Brewery. I hadn’t seen their sake in Kyoto before, but I will be looking for it in the near future!

Matsunotsukasa Brewery’s Line-up

Beautiful labels, beautiful flavors!

Matsunotsukasa Brewery

Matsunotsukasa Brewery

Matsunotsukasa Brewery

Kikuhime Sake Brewery

Another recommendation of Mr Kitagawa was Kikuhime Brewery. More excellent, excellent sake!

Shoshu from Kyushu

By the time we got down to the high-powered shochu section, we weren’t in a condition to drink a whole lot more but we sample plenty of shoshu never-the-less, just a few drops at a time!
Kikizake Event Brochure

In the end, we managed not to get to drunk but were able to sample a whole lot of wonderful sake and found some very interesting shochu as well!

Fushimi, Kyoto still has some beautiful places and offers a glimpse into what Fushimi must have been like before industrialization. I took my camera around the neighborhood and visited Okinaya, a small shop run by Kitagawa Honke. Okinaya sells Kitagawa’s Tomio brand sake as well as very nice rice and some other interesting goodies.

This is part 5 of our sake series.

Fushimi, Kyoto an Historic Town

Remember, Fushimi is synonymous with sake and water. Water for transportation of goods (rivers) and for making great sake (groundwater). Fushimi is also a beautiful and historic town. Many of the largest breweries still have beautiful, historic buildings. Fushimi is a great place to spend a day exploring, taking in scenes of old Japan and trying sake.

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

This brewery is the postcard image from Fushimi. The contrast of the traditional Japanese brewery architecture with the red brick (Western) smokestack and boiler room is quite compelling and speaks to it’s era, a time when Japan adopted necessary Western technology but retained it’s own character. This is on a riverbank so in the spring it is covered in verdant nanohana with yellow flowers.

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

Historic Matsumoto Shuzo Sake Brewery

Sign and entrance. Matsumoto Sake Brewery’s two famous brands are shown on the bottom of the sign, Hi-no-dezakari (日出盛) and Momo-no-shizuku (桃の滴).
Kitagawa Honke Brewery

Viewed from the riverbank. The old brewery can still be seen.

Kitagawa Honke Brewery

Viewed from the roof.

Traditional Japanese House

This house is beautifully maintained. The taller part on the right is the kura, or storehouse for the family treasures. Kyoto houses are made of wood — and burn. The kura have very thick earthen walls to withstand fire.

Old and New

A Japanese house with a bad neighbor. Japanese have yet to modernize their cities like Kyoto and retain harmony with the past.

Late Winter in Fushimi

This beautiful old house celebrates the approach of spring with flowers.

Late Winter in Fushimi

The pink blossoms are probably plum or peach.

Late Winter in Fushimi

These are probably Japanese quince and daffodils.

Late Winter in Fushimi

Camellia

Okinaya (おきな屋): Sake, Shochu, Rice and Other Goodies

Okinaya sells Kitagawa Honke Tomio brand sake, Hannari brand shochu and umeshu and some new and interesting creations. There is habanero shochu, shoyu and hard candies. Japanese food is not spicy hot but recently habanero peppers are being grown in one of the agricultural districts of Kyoto prefecture. Kitagawa Honke teamed up with some of the farmers out there to make these three products. One my favorite winter delicacies is sake kasu, this is the lees leftover after pressing. Sake kasu is used for all kinds of things; from soup stock to marinade for grilled fish to flavorings for wagashi. It is also enjoyed as amazake (甘酒), or sweet sake. Sake kasu is dissolved in hot water and grated ginger is added. It has little alcohol content and even children drink it at New Year’s.

Sake breweries ought to know all about rice, so this the place to get some great rice. Purchasing is quite fun because there are 8 wooden barrels full of brown rice. The customer selects the rice (by breed and region) and specifies the amount to be purchased. The clerk weighs out the rice and then mills it, making it white rice! Now that is fresh!

Many of Kitagawa Honke’s sake can be sampled at Okinaya.

Neighborhood Sign

Several of these handwritten signs on the walls and fences of the brewery tell the neighborhood about the latest sake available at Okinaya.

Okinaya Storefront

The storefront, facing Otesuji-dori Street.

Okinaya and the River

Okinaya and the river

Sake Kasu

A shot from the production process.

Okinaya Interior

In the foreground are the wooden barrels with brown rice. In the background sake and shochu can be seen.

Okinaya Rice Milling Machine

This is where the rice is milled.

Okinaya Rice Packaging

After the rice is milled it is packaged.

English:
English website: none
Service/Staff: friendly (no English)
Location and Access: Okinaya can be accessed from the Keihan Railway Keihan Honsen Line which is about 10 minutes from the center of Kyoto (Sanjo/Shijo). Just get off at Fushimi Momoyama Station and walk west through the shopping arcade. Walk a for more minutes after exiting the shopping arcade. Okinaya will be on the left side, if you cross the river, you have gone too far.
Address: 612-8369 Kyoto-shi Fushimi-ku Murakami-cho 370-6 (京都市伏見区村上町370-6)
Telephone: 075-601-0783
Near Sightseeing Spot: Fushimi Inari Shrine, Fushimi-Momoyama Castle, Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, Jyukkokubune/Sanjukkokubune (boat tours of Fushimi canals).
Map:

View Larger Map

Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5

I visited the Kitagawa Honke sake brewery to see the pressing of the mash for Daiginjo.

This is part 4 of our sake series.

Pressing the Mash

The kurabito crew closely monitor the progress of the fermentation and the toji (brew master) decides when it is time to stop the fermentation and press the mash and make sake. As the fermenting mash is ‘alive’ and no two lots are exactly the same, though it takes about one month, it cannot be said for certain when the fermentation process will be complete. I had hoped to see the pressing of lot no. 18 that I had been following but I couldn’t make it over to Kitagawa Honke in time to see it done, so I have photos here of lot no. 20, which is the exact same Daiginjo.

In Japanese the pressing process is called shibori (搾り) and mash is called moromi (醪).

Here we see photos of the labor intensive ‘handcrafted’, premium sake. The mash is scooped out of the vat and into fabric bags. These bags are placed on top of one another and the sake is slowly pressed out. First by the weight of the moromi filled bags, then mechanically, but as this is premium sake, only a minimum of pressure is applied.

Pressing the Mash – moromi (醪)

This is mash (moromi), very yummy stuff itself. This is what traditional Japanese ‘home brewed’ sake, or doburoku is. Doburoku is unpressed moromi.

Pressing the Mash – automation

For larger production lots an automated press is used. This is what one looks like.

Pressing the Mash – shibori (搾り)

The kurabito crew continuously and gently stirs the moromi and scoops it out and it is poured into long, cylindrical bags.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

The mash filled bags are stacked on top of each other inside a steel sieve.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

The weight of the moromi itself is sufficient to force the sake out.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Fabric shibori bags

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Here Tashiima Toji (Brew Master Tajima) applies some pressure.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Into this glass container is called a tobin, sake slowly trickles down.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Here the kurabito crew is setting up another press.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Here the moromi is mechanically pumped into the bags, but it is the same lot and the quality is the same.

Pressing the Mash – moromi detail
Before stirring, the surface looks waxy as it is so thick. The fragrance is pungent, earthy and fruity. I wanted a scoop!

Pressing the Mash – shibori

The moromi is pumped through the hose from the vat in the background. The large machinery on the left and right are mechanical filters (and not being used here).

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Filling the bags with moromi.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

A look inside the sieve.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Filling bags.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Stackin ‘em up like cordwood.

Pressing the Mash – shibori

Sake filling up the tobin.

Pressing the Mash – off to the lab

The lab technician gets some (tastes some and collects some for testing). I got a taste too. As it is not yet aged it is a bit rough around the edges, and it is quite high powered as it is not diluted with water. Yummy, never-the-less!

Pressing the Mash – in the lab

Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5

I went back to the Kitagawa Honke sake brewery to check-up on the progress of lot no. 18.

This is part 3 of our sake series.

While I was visiting the brewery I was able to see the difference between mash that was just started (no. 20) and mash that was almost done (no. 18) fermenting. I also got to see the pasteurization process for premium, handcrafted sake. I peeked in on the koji production room and got to see 1000 liters of fine sake pumped into a tank for aging.

lot no. 18 Daiginjo

This is posted on the vat, it says the kind of sake that it will be (Daiginjo) and the kind of rice used (Yamada-nishiki). The other notes are; tank no.52, production lot no. 18, 1 ton of rice.

lot no. 18 Daiginjo – inside the vat

Now just a dense froth. The fragrance inside the tank is sweet, pungent and fruity – but lethal. The vat is filled with carbon monoxide, produced naturally from the fermentation. I put my head inside and inhaled deeply. I felt like I have been punched — hard! It took my breath away. (Kiddies, DON’T try this!)

lot no. 20 Daiginjo

lot no. 20 is the same kind of sake, daiginjo made with the same yamada-nishiki rice. Tank no. 53, production lot no. 20, 1 ton of rice.

lot no. 20 Daiginjo – inside the vat

As no. 20 just started a few days ago, it still looks like liquid. The bubbles are naturally produced by the fermentation.

A Bucket of Ice

Next to tank no. 52 is a bucket of ice. This is added to reduce the temperature. Remember, the lower the temperature the better the sake.

Pasteurization of Premium Sake
When I arrived today the kurabito crew was pasteurizing a small batch of Kitagawa Honke’s premium, handcrafted sake. Pasteurization of fine sake involves heating the bottle in a barrel of hot water for a short time and then dunking it in ice water.

Pasteurization

Notice in the foreground the bottles that have been placed in the ice water. These are done.

Pasteurization

The kurabito on the left is holding a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water. The kurabito in the center is holding a thermometer the measures the temperature inside the bottle.

Pasteurization

After reaching the necessary temperature, the bottles are gently turned upside down, back and forth several times to ensure complete pasteurization.

Pasteurization

The final step it to chill the sake. This premium sake is pasteurized in lots of about 1 dozen 1.8 liter bottles.

Koji Production
This is the one warm room in the entire brewery! Koji needs warmth to grow. Remember, the most important ingredient in the sake production process is koji, so great care is expended in it’s production. After the koji is produced, it is added to the vat with to feed the fermentation process.

Koji Production – cleaning the incubator

Here one of the kurabito is cleaning out the koji incubator. Any koji that remains must be blasted out with pressurized air before the next lot is produced. Notice the kurabito is wearing just a t-shirt. It is very warm here, the rest of the brewery is just above freezing!

Koji Production – the end of the line

Some koji that spilled on the floor at the end of the conveyor belt.

Koji

I scooped up koji for a close-up photo. It is soft, powdery white growing on the steamed sake rice. It tastes quite sweet.

Koji

Here the kurabito is having a look at the koji as it is being moved in trolleys to the fermentation tank.

Aging Sake
Here the sake is being moved from the vat after pressing to the aging tank where it will age for 6 months to a year. This is for larger volume production and is not 100% handcrafted, but very good stuff, never-the-less!

Aging Sake

The machinery on the left will heat the sake and pump it up the the second floor where it will be put in a tank to age.

Aging Sake

Tashima Toji (Brewmaster Tashima) inspecting the settings and getting ready to start.

Aging Sake

The vat on the right contains the sake that will be pumped up to the floor above for storage.

Aging Sake

A shot inside the vat. Sake is actually slightly golden in color.

Aging Sake

A testament to the cold, I used some boiling hot water coming out of a pipe to warm my feet inside my kurabito rubber boots. It got real warm, real quick!

Aging Sake

This is the hose that transports the sake up from the floor below. This was truly an amazing sight! (see next photo)

Aging Sake

At the end, the sake becomes water as water is used to push the last of the sake through the hose. The kurabito frantically dips his finger into the sake stream, tasting it as quickly as possible. Just as it starts to taste a little watery, he pulls the hose out of the tank, blasting a few hundred liters of water all over the place (and probably more than a little fine sake too!). Quite a sight!

Aging Sake

Taking a sample for the lab. A bottle is dunked and filled to be taken downstairs to the lab.

Aging Sake

While shooting a couple shots up here, in just a minute or so I got quite a sake buzz! Why? This sake is hot, the vapors are intense and quickly intoxicate. I remember thinking that I was in a sake steam room! Completely different than sake served hot. It was quite wonderful!

Aging Sake

Capping the bottle for the lab.

Aging Sake – sealing the tank

Rice starch glue is being painted on paper that will be used to seal the tank.

Aging Sake

Sealing the cover.

Aging Sake

Final step, clamping down the cover. Now wait 6 months to a year!

The Brewery
I snapped a few shots of the brewery.

The Brewery

This is a shot from the roof of the new wing of the brewery over looking the old (tile roofs).

The Brewery

The old brewery with the roof of the new wing in the background.

The Brewery

This is what ‘old Fushimi’ looked like.
Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5

This morning I awoke at 5am, opened the window and looked out at Kitayama, the North Mountains of Kyoto to see everything covered in heavy, wet snow.

At 7am, amid heavy snowflakes, I was met by Yukihiro Kitagawa, outside his sake brewery, Kitagawa Honke, the maker of the premium sake brand, Tomio. Mr Kitagawa is the 14th president of Kitagawa Honke.

In part 2 of our sake series, we examine the following:

• The history of Fushimi, Kyoto.
• The water of Fushimi and the two tastes of Japanese sake.
• The social and organizational relationships within the sake brewery.

Whiteboard Notes

Fushimi water hardness (softness), minerals and saccharification. Again, saccharification is the process of converting starch into sugars. Minerals in the water influence the fermentation process.

Fushimi History
Fushimi is synonymous with sake in Japan and Kitagawa Honke is located here. Fushimi was once it’s own city but is now a ward of Kyoto.

Fushimi is one of several bakufu-machi (幕府街), literally, military government city, in Japan. Kyoto was the seat of the throne, but the emperor was often not consequential as a leader. The real power resided with the bakufu, the military and political leaders that comprised the samurai class.

After the Warring States period, Fushimi was built as seat of the bakufu.

Fushimi is a very interesting town. It was once the fifth largest city in Japan. It was the ‘port’ of landlocked Kyoto. Fushimi is criss-crossed by navigable rivers, which run down from Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture, through Fushimi and lead to the merchant town of Osaka and the sea. Much commerce was conducted between Kyoto and Osaka by river.

Fushimi is a delightful town, with many historic places to visit. For example Fushimi Castle and Fushimi Inari Shrine. Fushimi is about 10 minutes by train from the center of Kyoto.

Fushimi Water
Fushimi is blessed with springs that produce water of unusual softness. The original meaning of Fushimi appears to mean ‘hidden water’ (伏水), spring water. It is said that in 1594 water began vigorously bubbling up from the ground and sake breweries began to spring up and the town began to develop and prosper.

The rivers of Fushimi have nothing to do with the taste of the sake, they provided the transportation of it to the rest of Japan, via Osaka.

The Taste: Feminine Sake vs. Masculine Sake
Even today, Fushimi is the second largest producer of sake in Japan. The largest is Nada, in Kobe. Nada-zake is considered to be masculine in taste, Nada’s water is hard. Fushimi-zake is considered to be feminine in taste, Fushimi’s water is soft. Brewing style and tradition are surely part of the taste of the final product, but mineral content in the water creates unique characteristics in the fermentation process. And the fermentation process makes the taste.

Relationships: Kuramoto – Toji – Kurabito
As with all else in Japan, human relationships are very important to getting anything done, including making great sake!

Kuramoto (蔵元): brewery owner
Toji (杜氏): master sake brewer
Kurabito (蔵人): brewery workers

The kuramoto (president/owner) of the brewery oversees all aspects of the business.

The toji, master brewer, oversees all aspects of the sake production and hiring and managing the brewery workers. The position of toji and his relationship with the president/owner is very interesting. Every year, they decide what kind of sake that they will make and how much. From there, the toji is completely entrusted with the production of the year’s sake. A bit different than the modern CEO – department head relationship.

Currently there are three main ‘schools’, or ryuha of toji.

The meaning of toji is quite interesting. ‘To’ is said to be family name of the Chinese man that invented the process of brewing alcohol from rice. ‘Ji’ is the most polite form of ‘Mr.’ in Japanese. So, ‘Mr. To’ in honor of the man that started it all. The position of toji is highly respected in Japanese society, similar to the ‘celebrity chef’ phenomenon in Western countries, only with centuries more history.

Under the toji are the kurabito literally ‘brewery person’, a person working in the brewery. These people wash the rice, steam it, ferment it and bottle the sake. This is very hard work, manual labor. More than that, it is cold and wet work. The colder the air temperature, the better the sake that can be made. Water is used everywhere in the production process.

It is quite interesting to note that in many traditional industries here in Kyoto, it is very difficult for the owners to find young people that want to work in, say, a weaving or dying factory, but sake breweries have no trouble recruiting young, hardworking people excited about making great sake.

Traditionally, the sake brewery was the domain of men, but here at Kitagawa Honke there are two women on the kurabito crew. There are even female toji now.

Here are some (more) photos I took of various stages of the production of ‘no.18′.

Rice Milling

This shows the rice, from left to right, in it’s natural state as brown rice and milled down to 70%, 60% and 50%. The more it is milled the higher the quality sake that can be produced.

Rice Milling

Old and New: Instruments and Shinto ‘Paper Amulets’
The ‘paper amulets’ are from Matsuo Shrine in the Western Hills of Kyoto. In Matsuo Shrine is the God of Sake. These o-mamori (御守) are everywhere in the brewery, even attached to the most sophisticated instruments!

Production Lot No. 18. 1/26

This instrument measures, regulates and records the temperature in the vat.

In the Lab: Kiki-zake (利き酒・聞き酒) Evaluating the Sake

The toji took me down to the lab to taste some of the brews that he is most proud of. These three sakes were absolutely out of sight! How do you get such a complex and fruity taste out of rice? I do not know!

Of course you are supposed to spit out the sake, and I did spit out most of what I tasted. But the taste is different and fuller when swallowed. I ended up completely smashed, by 11:30 am!

In the Lab: Three Sakes
The Toji invited me down to the lab to try these three sakes of which he is particularly proud.

In the Lab: Tarekuchi Sake

This sake, Tarekuchi was exquisite, complex and fruity.

In the Lab

In the Lab

Here is a sneak peek of ‘Learning to Make Sake’ – part 3:

Fermentation process inside the vat, comparing lots 18 and 20.

Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5

This morning I awoke at 5:00, opened the window and looked out at Kitayama, the North Mountains of Kyoto to see everything covered in heavy snow.

At 7am, amid heavy snowflakes, I was met by Yukihiro Kitagawa, outside his sake brewery, Kitagawa Honke, the maker of the premium sake brand, Tomio. Mr Kitagawa is the 14th president of Kitagawa Honke.

Kitagawa Honke is about 300 years old, and I was kindly allowed to see what few outsiders get to see firsthand, the production of sake, this year’s production lot no.18 Daiginjo Yamada-nishiki (No.18 大吟醸 山田錦).

I spent nearly two full days learning, watching, studying about how to make fine Japanese sake. I even did a little hard labor, all for the love of sake! I love sake and sake seems to love me, so we decided that I will continue to visit Kitagawa Honke throughout the year and document and report the goings on of this premium sake brewery here on KyotoFoodie.

Whiteboard Notes

I was given a lecture by Mr. Kitagawa regarding Kitagawa Honke’s production process, the ‘multiple parallel fermentation’ process, and the particulars of production lot no.18 Daiginjo Yamada-nishiki 39% .

Classical Sake Production Process

This painting is of Kitagawa Honke before industrialization. On lunch break I looked at the painting again in utter astonishment. The sake production process is cold, cold, cold and there is ice cold water everywhere. Look closely, these men are not only barelegged but also barefoot!

Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know about Japanese sake:

What makes sake, what makes great sake?

Kokkin: Meet Japan’s ‘national micro-organism’; koji.
It’s all about koji. What the heck is koji? Aspergillus oryzae. Diastic Enzyme. Kokkin (National Micro-organism). This enzyme is essential to such things as shoyu (soy sauce) and miso as well as most of the alcoholic beverages of Asia.

Without koji you can’t make sake, without great koji, you can’t make great sake. Koji is cultivated in the brewery by the most expensive machine in the premises, a gigantic incubator. Great, great care is invested in the production of the brewery’s koji.

Water
Next you have to have great water. Kyoto has great water for tea, dashi and sake. Fushimi, has really great water. The water of Fushimi is well balanced, right in the middle between soft and hard. This makes for a balanced sake.

Rice
Rice is also important, but not as important as you might expect. There is a special rice just for sake. The grain is larger than usual, containing more starch than normal rice. Several regions of Japan grow the best sake rice.

To make the more premium, ‘fruity’ sakes, rice is milled down to leaving anywhere from 70% to 39%. The more it is milled, the better and more expensive the resulting sake.

The sake that was being made when I visited was made with Yamada-nishiki rice from Hyogo Prefecture, milled to 39% — super premium!

Brewing Sake
Premium sake is a ‘fresh’ beverage, usually consumed within months, not years of bottling. One production lot of sake, the fermentation process is usually complete in about one month.

Storage is critical, it must be kept chilled to prevent the flavor from being spoiled. (That means export of real sake is difficult and expensive.)

Fermentation
In the production of alcoholic beverages made from fruit, such as wine, sugars contained in the fruit facilitates the fermentation process.

Rice is starch, not sugar, yet the end result, alcohol, can only be produced with glucose. Where does it come from? The all important koji converts the starch to sugar, this process is called saccrification. Yeast then converts this to alcohol.

This process is called a ‘multiple parallel fermentation’ process and is very complex and difficult to control.

Steps

1. Milling: brown rice is milled
2. Washing and Soaking: white rice is washed and soaked
3. Steaming: rice is steamed
4. Mash: mash is made with steamed rice, koji, yeast
5. Fermentation
6. Pressing
7. Filtering
8. Pasteurization: low temperature pasteurization is common, but not all sake is pasteurized
9. Bottling: some sake is aged before bottling

There are many different kinds of sake.

I. Types of Sake
There are several different types of sake, and the following special denominations are specified by the Japanese government.

Ginjoshu (吟醸酒)
Sake made using white rice which has been milled so that 60% or less of the grain remains. It also contains rice koji and water, and may contain all of these ingredients plus brewing alcohol. It is characterized by a fruity, somewhat floral bouquet and a clear, crisp flavor. If the rice is polished down to 50% or less, the sake is called Dai-ginjoshu (大吟醸酒)

Junmaishu (純米酒)
Sake made only from white rice, rice koji, and water. It tends to have a mellow bouquet and a rich, smooth flavor.

Honjozoshu (本醸造酒)
Sake made using white rice which has been milled so that 70% or less of the grain remains, along with rice koji, brewing alcohol, and water. It is known for its mild, unobtrusive bouquet, and a crisp flavor.

All other types of sake fall under the category of Futsushu, which is consumed widely throughout Japan. This category offers various tastes, with each brand of sake featuring a unique flavor that is characteristic of the brewery.

II. Sake Varieties
Sake varieties are also distinguished by brewing method.

Namazake (生酒)
Sake that is not heated for pasteurization after the final mash is pressed. It is characterized by a light, fresh flavor.

Genshu (原酒)
Sake with a higher alcohol content because it has been pressed but not diluted with added water. It has a deep, rich flavor and an alcohol content of from 17% to 20%.

Koshu (Aged sake) (古酒)
Sake that has been aged for a couple of years, or for upwards of five years or longer. It has a bouquet like sherry, with a flavor profile that includes spices and nuts.

Taruzake (Cask sake) (樽酒)
Sake that is aged in casks and thus takes on the fragrance of the wood from which the cask is made.

Nigorizake (にごり酒)
Sake that is milky white, since the mash is only lightly filtered using a coarse-textured cloth.

Happoshu (Sparkling sake) (発砲酒)
Carbonated sake, with a mouth feel reminiscent of champagne.

source: Japan Sake Brewers Association

Here are some photos I took of various stages of the production of ‘no.18′.

1.) Koji Production

Seikikushitsu (製麹室), Koji Production Room

Koji is the heart and soul of sake, above the door is a small shrine dedicated to the God of Sake.

2.) Washing and Soaking the Rice

Timing is Everything

Notice the stop watch. This is the toji, or brew master. The amount of water absorbed in the washing process must be carefully controlled and can be affected by the air/water temperature, humidity and amount of residual moisture in the rice (before washing). Too much or too little water and it won’t be steamed to al dante!

Washing the Rice, the Old Fashioned Way

This is handcrafted sake. Here rice is being washed 12 kilos at a time, very labor intensive.

Washing the Rice

Washing the Rice

Washing the Rice

Weighing the Rice and Calculating Water Content

Twenty-eight percent water content was the goal.
Notice the firehose sized hoses in the background, they pump out 100s of liters per minute of ice-cold, delicious Fushimi water.

Toji Inspecting Washed and Soaked Rice

Toji Inspecting Washed and Soaked Rice

If the rice half melts, half crumbles, it is just right for steaming, which will be done the next day. The rice is covered with wet linen sheets in stainless steel hoppers and loses no water content over night.

3.) Steaming and Cooling the Rice

Rice Steamer

This kurabito inspects rice as it comes out of the steamer and into the cooling chamber, which is behind him. Rice is steamed in this massive machine for 50 minutes.

Inspecting Steamed Rice

Toji and kurabito inspect rice as it exits the steamer.

Chilled After Steaming

The steamed rice has been mechanically chilled. Next it will be transported to an open air room to be chilled further.

Cooling the Steamed Rice for Premium Daiginjo Sake
The make the best sake possible, the rice should be as cold as possible. After being mechanically chilled it is moved to this room with the windows open and fans blowing on the rice for an hour or so. They were able to chill it a further 1°C. Here the president, Mr. Kitagawa (left) lends a hand.

Cooling the Rice for Premium Daiginjo Sake

Notice the fan, left.

Cooling the Rice for Premium Daiginjo Sake

Notice the thermometer, center. They are trying to lower the temperature by just 1°C! The colder the better the sake.

4.) Fermentation

Transferring the Koji to the Vat (via yellow bucket)

The metal cylinder contains the koji mixture/fermentation starter for this production lot.

Vat Interior – no.18

Koji mixture, next comes the rice.

President and Toji Confer

Here rice has come out of the mechanical chilling machine. Mr. Kitagawa (left) and Toji (center) inspect the rice will discussing details. The kurabito (right) prepares to move the rice to the large open air room to cool it further.

Rice Added to Vat

Now the fermentation process begins. It will take about 1 month.

Sake Series:
Learning to Make Sake: Part 1
Learning to Make Sake: Part 2
Learning to Make Sake: Part 3
Learning to Make Sake: Part 4
Learning to Make Sake: Part 5