Hiya-Oroshi PART 2!

"Back again with that smooth mellow taste that's always good to the last drop.
Yes folks, we're talking about Hiya-Oroshi, the smooth fall brew."
Thats what you would be hearing on the radio, 40 years ago any way....

But seriously I'm back again this week to introduce another great fall brew to keep you going until new years when the Shibori-tatte (fresh pressed) sakes come in.
Time is flying by; only about a month to a month and a half left until the start of the brewing season!
It's like waiting for the super bowl, except everyone still has their shirts on.

Now, without further ado I present to you, a first for this blog and one of my new favorites:

Ishidzuchi / 石鎚

Tokubetsu Junmai Hiya-Oroshi / 特別純米 冷や卸し

Alcohol: 16~17% / Polish: 55~60%

SMV: +6

Ishidzuchi Shuzo / Ehime Prefecture

Tasting notes:

On the nose: Very light, lots of rice, with a little bit of an almost fruity sweetness. Very mild and pleasant.

On the palate: very smooth and round. Medium to full bodied, lots of rice with an underlying fruity sweetness to balance out it's dryness. Very well balanced with a good finish.

Other notes:

• This sake comes in two sizes, 720ml and 1.8L.
• This is a Hiya-Oroshi sake, Ishidzuchi also puts out a whole line of great sakes including other seasonal brews. We also have five other types in the store (Only in 1.8L size).
• This brew is a good match to a wide varieties of food, it's fuller body gives it a good edge for heavier flavored foods including a wide variety of meat dishes. meat dishes.
• I enjoyed this one with a really good hand made tofu and edamame.

Well that's it for this round, I'll keep posting them as I drink 'em.

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

A Junmai to be proud of!

I would like to introduce to you all one of my favorite Junmai Sake. This one is not for sake wimps; this is a Junmai on steroids!

I present to you:

Daishinshuu / 大信州

Karakuchi Tokubetsu Junmai Nama / 辛口特別純米生

Alcohol: 16% / Polish: 70%

SMV: +5

Daishinshuu Shuzo / Nagano Prefecture

Tasting notes:

On the nose: Very fresh with lots of good yeast / Koji smells. Loads of rice and strong fruity hints. Huge nose for a Junmai!

On the palate: Very full bodied and smooth. Clean crisp and fresh; Dry but with a lot of full flavored sweetness from the rice, and a refreshing fruitiness. Ends with a finish that will knock your socks off.

Other notes:

• Meishu no Yutaka has the largest selection of Daishinshuu Sake in Japan, with over 30 different kinds under two labels, there is a Daishinshuu sake for everyone. Look forward to more goodies from Daishinshuu in future posts.
• This sake is a Nama sake, or unpasteurized sake, so it must be kept in the fridge.
• Karakuchi Tokubetsu Junmai Nama comes in one size 1.8L, but don't worry because even a bottle this size will disappear before you know it, when it's this tasty.
• This is a seasonal sake so it probably won't be around for ever. It just came in about a month ago so there is still stock, but if you want to try this one you should grab a bottle sooner than later.
• What is Tokubetsu (special) about this Junmai, with a polish rate of 70% you might be thinking "why is this a Tokubetsu Junmai and not a regular Junmai?", is the polish rate of the Rice used for growing the Koji mold. This sake is actually made with Daiginjo class Koji rice, milled to 50%. This is also mostly responsible for this sake's great nose. This for me is like going to heaven before you die, It truly is the best of both worlds!

That's it for this time,

Cheers,

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

This years Shizukudori, and the Brewery that makes it!

In this installment, I want to highlight one of Hokkaido's premier breweries.
Hokkaido doesn't have a strong reputation for good sake,
however there are breweries making some pretty good stuff.

Today's introduction is a private label sake that Meishu no Yutaka and about 10 other sake stores have put out called: Hokutozuisou Shizukudori.
It is only available in and around Sapporo in a select few shops, so you will have to come up here to get it.

Hokutozuisou Shizukudori / 北斗随想しずくどり
Junmai Ginjo Nama Genshu / 純米吟醸 生原酒
Polish rate: 45% / Alcohol: 16~17%
SMV: +5
Brewery: Kobayashi Shuzo / Hokkaido

Tasting notes:
On the nose: Light, slightly fruity, with hints of rice. The alcohol comes through on the nose, but doesn't over power it. The nose is a little light for the average Ginjo class sake but very clean.

On the palate: Smooth with sweetness from the rice coming up first, followed by the Genshu spiciness, and finally the bite from the high alcohol content. Medium bodied, a little light bodied for a Genshu, but won't let you down.

Other notes:

• Shizukudori is classified as a Ginjo, however it is more than qualified to be a Daiginjo. This is by choice of the sake stores (actually by the president of our store).
  

• This is a Genshu so once again I will remind you to be careful of the high alcohol content.

• Because this is a private label sake, we the Sake stores have the privilege of having a hand in the production process. We tell the brewery what kind of sake we want them to make, and they brew it. We do how ever Help in the bottling phase each year. Usually we help in the pasteurization phase, although this year we helped by hand bottling the entire batch (well over hundred cases). I was lucky to participate this year, and it really gives me a new appreciation for all of the work that goes into a single bottle of sake.

Kobayashi Brewery:

We were lucky enough to get a full tour of the brewing facilities after helping to label the new batch of Shizukudori. Kobayashi shuzo has one of the longest histories for breweries in Hokkaido, with over 130 years under it's belt. It is run within a series of old brick buildings, which I forgot to take any pictures of (I apologize), which are truly a sight to see. The facilities include the brewing room, several warehouses, an office, a Soba restaurant, and a museum / sake store.

First things first, bottling. Unfortunately most of the pictures I have of this have too many people in them to post to the web, however I did manage to get a couple I could use.

Above are (top) the advanced piece of technology that we used to put the labels on straight, and (bottom) a palate of finished cases going off to the warehouse.

Next was a tour of the brewing facilities starting from the unbottled sake storage area, and the pasteurizing area.

Above: (top) brewery staff regulates the temperature of the Pasteurization tank, (bottom) Huge 1,000+ liter storage tanks full of sake awaiting bottling.

The next stop was the Koji cultivation area (I love the smell of fresh Koji). We were not able to go inside the cultivation area, because of potential contamination, but i did snap a picture of the Koji cooling area.

It was quite an interesting setup, as the cooling room was just a tarped in area at the doorway to the hot room.

Next is one of my favorite areas, The brewing room!

(top) The brewing tanks as seen from the upper platform, used when brewing and caring for the sake. (bottom) A look into one of the tanks, this one has been brewing for a while and has settled a bit.

Kobayashi Shuzo uses closed tanks instead of the open topped tanks you see most used these days. There are no real changes made to the sake it's self, however open tanks are easier to clean, where as closed tanks keep things from falling into the tank better and are safer.

Next we took a look at a couple of Shubo tanks (yeast starter mash, written as 酒母, literally translated it means "sake mother").

(top) this batch had just been started the day before, but was already starting to go at it. It was really warm, and already starting to put out some CO2 gas. (bottom) This batch was about 4 days old by the time we saw it and it had a nice foam on the top with enough CO2 gas build up you couldn't stick your face into it. The temperature had dropped by this time, and It was really starting to smell like sake.

The final stop on the tour was the pressing room. The main pressing is done by a series of large accordion presses, but they also have about 10 Fune presses as well (see picture), that unfortunately they are not using at present.

(top) This is your standard accordion press used in just about every brewery in Japan. It consists of a series of fabric balloons into which they pump the unfiltered sake. They then slowly apply pressure to the balloons, lightly squeezing the liquid sake out, leaving behind the Kasu (leavings). This process takes a great deal of time as too much pressure can damage the sake.
(bottom) This is the series of Fune presses I mentioned above. it is an older styled press which is much more labor intensive, and is still used in many breweries today, mainly for Daiginjo sakes. It requires the unfiltered sake to be poured into fabric bags by hand or by pump, and then loaded into the press tub by hand. Most of the pressing is done by gravity, only at the end is pressure from the press applied.

The final product is Shiboritate, or Fresh pressed sake! Not much tastes better than the sake scooped from the nozzle of the press.

Well that's it for today. I hope that you have found this interesting and informative. Please feel free to give me feedback and suggestions!

Meishu no Yutaka Staff
Carlin

English blog Launched!

Welcome all to the newly launched English weblog for Meishu no Yutaka. My name is Carlin, and I am creating this blog in the hopes that I can share a little bit of the knowledge I accumulate in my sake studies with other sake enthusiasts.

I find myself a long way from my former home of California, as I start my new life in Japan as an employee and future part owner of the biggest specialty sake store in Hokkaido. I have been working in Meishu no Yutaka off and on for the last 2 years and became a full time employee in Dec of 2008. I am in no way a sake expert, however having the privilege of being in a position so close to the heart of the sake world, I thought that it would be fun to share some of my experiences with those who may not have the chance to see the sake world first hand.

Well that's enough of the formal stuff for me. Lets move on to the fun stuff.
As a staff member of a sake shop it is part of my Job to taste all new sake that comes into the store (all work and no play make Carlin a dull boy). Together with the sake that I drink out-side of the shop, I get to taste a fair amount of sake. My intention with this blog is to post Tasting notes on as much of the sake as I can (although unfortunately there are some brands of sake that I am not allowed to post to the Internet), Any and all trips that I make to sake breweries, and as much insider info as possible about the inner workings of the sake world.

That being said, what better way to kick off a new sake blog than to post tasting notes on one of my favorite sakes, from one of the most sought after Breweries in Japan: DENSHU!

Denshu 田酒
Tokubetsu Junmai Shiboritate Nama Genshu
特別純米搾りたて生原酒
Polish rate: 55% / Alcohol: 18%
SMV: ＋２
Brewery: Nishida Shuzou / Aomori Prefecture

Tasting notes:
On the nose: Sweet, fresh, clean, with a lot of Koji and rice fragrances. Not a lot of the yeasty unpasteurized characteristics that you get from a normal nama-zake.

On the palate: Dry with good acid balance, strong bite on the finish coming from the high alcohol content. Full bodied with a lot of sweetness from the rice carried through on a nice bed of spiciness you get from a good Genshu.

Other notes:
Denshu tokubetsu Junmai Shiboritatte Nama Genshu comes in one size: 180ml.
Because it is a Genshu it has a relatively high alcohol content, so be careful not to drink too much.
Nishida Shuzou is a small brewery so their production is quite limited.
This sake is very hard to find in Japan, let alone the rest of the world, so if you find it else-where, I take my hat off to you my friends.
If you can find it, I highly recommend drinking this little beauty, or any other sake under the Denshu label.


This is a new endevour for me so please feel free to give me feedback and suggestions on the Blog. I want to make this as fun and informitive as possible! Also please excuse my long windedness this time around, I promise the posts to come will be a little shorter.

Cheers,

Meishu no Yutaka staff
Carlin