brewer and researcher Goro Kishi conceived what would later become sokujo-moto. In 1894, Kishi published a technical manual on sake production that used science to explain brewing principles and to improve sake. At that time, the approach to making sake was shifting from the intuition of the toji to one based on empirical methods. Besides an in-depth look at soft-water brewing, which was invaluable to Niigata brewers, Kishi was the first to mention the addition of lactic acid to the yeast starter. Later, this idea was refined, and the National Institute of Brewing codified the sokujo-style starter in 1909.
Multi-step Brewing
The yeast starter makes up only around 6 percent of the total brew. So, much like concentrated juice or powdered milk, it must be evened out to create a full batch. This is accomplished through a four-day process called sandan jikomi, or “three-step addition.”
On the first day, steamed rice, koji and water are added to the starter. On the second day, known as odori (literally “dance”), the mixture is left as is so the yeast can grow. The next day, steamed rice, koji and water are added again. The fourth day sees another addition of steamed rice, koji and water. The sake mash, or moromi, is then left to ferment for up to four weeks.
A brewer at Eigashima Shuzo in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, mixes the main mash.
Brewers at Yoshinogawa in Niigata stack bags of unfiltered sake mash for pressing.
Sometimes a “four-step addition” is used. Depending on the brewers’ aim, the fourth addition could be shubo, sake kasu (lees), amazake (sweet non-alcoholic sake), water or sticky rice. Ozeki, one of the country’s largest sake makers, even has a premium sake produced with a 10-step addition process.
Kai-ire: mixing up the brewing mash
One of the most common sights in a sake brewery is brewers jamming poles called kai into tanks and tubs of sake. This is called kai-ire, or “putting in the kai,” an essential part of the process that helps even out the mash, keeps a constant temperature and releases trapped carbon dioxide. Brewers have their own techniques for handling the kai and mixing up the mash. However, Shoichi Washizu, the legendary toji at Niigata’s oldest brewery, Yoshinogawa, figured out that by using massive tanks, the kai-ire process wouldn’t be necessary: so much gas would be created during fermentation that the mash would agitate itself during brewing. Others in the industry thought his plan would never work, but it did—and beautifully—allowing Yoshinogawa to keep prices low and production high. These fermentation tanks are as tall as three-story buildings. Each batch produces 5,000 isshobin (1.8-liter or 4 pint-bottles) of sake. “If you drank one isshobin everyday, it would take over 13 years to drink all the sake in one tank,” explains Yoshinogawa spokesperson Masayuki Yokomoto. While Yoshinogawa’s award-winning sake is very good, drinking an entire isshobin of it every day isn’t recommended, for obvious health reasons!
It’s easy to see why the fukuro-tsuri (hanging bag) style of pressing is also called kubi-tsuri, meaning “hung by the neck.” For more, see page 60.
Fresh sake passes through metal mesh.
Some daiginjo, typically pressed in hanging bags, is then added directly to 18-liter (5-gallon) glass jugs known as tobin.
Adding Alcohol
For certain types of sake, brewer’s alcohol is added right before pressing. Of course, it is not added to pure rice junmai sake. For more on brewer’s alcohol, see page 25.
Pressing
There are three basic ways to press alcohol once the fermentation is complete. One is by using an old-fashioned press called a sakabune (“sake boat”). Cloth bags are filled with sake, folded and stacked on each other in the rectangular sakabune box. Since only careful folding keeps the sake from spilling, even these initial steps take tremendous skill. Typically made from hard woods like cherry or gingko, these all-wood presses can impart a scent to the sake, which might impair certain brews. For this reason, some sakabune are lined with easy-to-clean material like stainless steel.
It can take up to three days to press the sake in the sakabune, after which all the bags must be cleaned. Most large sake breweries in Japan no longer use this method—though the Kariho Brewery in Akita has a whopping six sakabune in use! It’s not uncommon for smaller breweries to still use sakabune for various reasons. Some use them to achieve a certain nuance; for others, it is simply the equipment the brewery has (automatic presses are expensive!). These days, sakabune often sit forlorn and unused in the brewery, covered in plastic or moved to a permanent exhibit in the brewery museum.
DENSHU SAKE: THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF PERFECTION
A sprightly 59 years old, Tsukasa Nishida bounds through the Nishida Shuzoten Brewery in khaki pants and a pair of Adidas Stan Smiths. It’s not unusual to see a brewery president pulling double duty as toji, especially in a small boutique outfit like this. But Nishida isn’t the master brewer. His second gig is brewery worker, so he ties up canvas bags of steamed rice, pushes carts and cleans up. Don’t be fooled, though: he’s the one making the final call.
“The other brewers here don’t see me as the president,” Nishida says, taking a quick break after the morning brewing. When he’s working in the brewery, he’s just another hand. “But I have to be out here on the floor. That’s the only way I can know what’s really going on and make the necessary changes to improve what we do and what we make.” Nishida Shuzoten’s most famous sake is Denshu. Launched in 1974, the name literally means “rice-field sake.” The idea was that this was a brew made directly from rice. It was promoted and labeled as a junmai-shu, marking a return to the days when sake was made without any added alcohol.
Nishida Shuzoten uses interesting rice varieties, including Kojo Nishiki, a variety named in 1968 that was bred from the second-most-commonly used sake rice, Gohyakumangoku, and Benkei, a sake rice variety dating from 1924 that fell out of favor once Yamada Nishiki, the king of sake rice, arrived in 1936. What makes Denshu so good is that it is exceedingly balanced, with equal emphasis on in the rice, koji and yeast. There is umami and depth, but nothing overpowers or distracts. “The kind of sake that is popular these days is good for that first impact, but loses its luster the more you drink,” says Nishida. “Our sake is something that you can keep drinking, and it doesn’t get in the way of food, so you can finish the sake and your meal too.”
Tsukasa Nishida is all smiles after a long day of working in the brewery.
But Denshu wasn’t
