Sake Lees: This is what is left after the sake has been pressed out of the mash. It is called ‘sake kasu’ in Japanese and it is used in home cooking in many ways to create wonderfully complex flavored dishes during the winter sake brewing season. Many traditional Japanese confection, cracker, snack companies and so on use a lot of kasu to flavor some of their products. Non-traditional things like ice cream, chocolate, bread and so on are flavored with kasu these days.

Sake kasu is a common sight in the fresh vegetable section of any grocery store in winter in Japan. The fragrance is quite fruity. Mechanically pressed sake kasu comes in ‘boards’, hard sheets of kasu, hand-pressed (teshibori) is looser and cumbly. The pictures below are of hand-pressed sake kasu. This was kasu made premium daiginjo sake and is made with Yamada Nishiki variety rice from Hyogo prefecture.

Teshibori Sake Kasu

Again, teshibori means ‘hand-pressed’.

Sake kasu can be eaten as is, the texture is quite like cheese but the taste is fruity and obviously tastes of sake. This hand-pressed kasu still has quite a bit of alcohol content in it.

Opening 2 kilos of Teshibori Sake Kasu

Kasu-jiru (kasu soup): Base for soups and stews
Kasu-zuke (kasu marinade): Marinade fish and meat before grilling
Amazake (sweet sake): Melted in hot water, served with shredded ginger

Kasu can be lightly toasted and served with honey. Narazuke is pickled dark brown neri-kasu, kasu that has been allowed to age for several months.

In the next few days we will do some recipe articles based on sake kasu. We are calling the series, Sake Kasu Zanmai. Zanmai means to be luxuriously absorbed in something. Last year we did buri zanmai, a number of ways to enjoy yellowtail.

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.

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 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