Koji making, no wimps allowed

This episode is all about Koji.

That magical mold that makes sake what it is.

Koji mold, unlike that mold that is growing on the thanksgiving leftovers sitting in the back of the refrigerator, is a needy mold that requires lots of attention to grow into a fine fungi.

This is the story of the little Daishinshu Koji mold, that started out as a spore on his mother's rice kernel, and grew up to be a Ginjo class kome-koji.

Making kome-koji is a process that includes a lot of heavy lifting, dangerous steaming pots, lightly burned hands, and worn thin skin. It takes a lot of determination and attention to detail (apparently monthly massages too, although that's a trade secret) to make sake the traditional way, And thus I have given this post the name "koji making, no wimps allowed."

First off I would like to share with everyone something you don't often see when shopping for, or studying about, sake, the faces behind the sake.

The picture above is team Daishinshu. With a team of only 9 people, Daishinshu brews about 50 different kinds of sake (including seasonal and limited quantity varieties). The person in the white hat in the front row is Daishinshu's Toji (master brewer), who is now the head Toji, after the previous Toji retired last year at the age of 92 (although he still stops by to check on things). The women on either side of the Toji are seasonal workers (although most of them have been working in the brewery for close to 30 years); in the off season they are apple farmers. In the back row (from left to right) are Katsumi-san, Komatsu-san, Hayashi-san, and Morimoto-san, all seasoned sake makers, and full time employees. And last but not least, Yokomizu-san, who started this year at the beginning of the season (October 1st).

If you are going to tell the story of Kome-koji, then the logical place to start would of course be, the Kome (rice). Daishinshu gets most of their rice from two farms in Nagano prefectures. About 70% of the rice Daishinshu uses is grown under contract, which gives them the ability to work with the farmers closely in order to get exactly the kind of rice that they want. Daishinshu's main sake rice varietal is, Hitogokochi (also known as super Miyama-Nishiki, a varietal bred in Nagano), although they also use a mix of Yamada-nishiki, Miyama-nishiki, and others.

These Guys grow the rice.

Of coarse the rice's tale starts in the paddies, but this story will start a little later after the rice has become big and strong Gen-mai (元米 unpolished or brown rice). Daishinshu polishes 60% of their own rice, something that not all sake breweries do these days, as polishing machines cost about as much as a mid sized house. The other 40% is polished in a local polishing facility. The reason that they don't polish 100% of their own rice is simply time. in order to polish 800~1,000 kg of rice to around 60% it takes upwards of 30 hours of continual polishing, and that amount of rice doesn't last all that long. Thus it is hard to polish all the rice they need themselves, especially in the start of the season when they need to start brewing as soon as possible. The 40% they don't polish themselves is mainly used in the first brews of the year, and for their Futsu-shus.

Huge sacks of unpolished rice, (Komatsu-san jumped in for dramatic effect). This pile totaled 9 metric tons.

Daishinshu's polishing machine (costs upwards of $300,000 USD or 3千万円)

Collecting the rice flour from the polishing machine.

It's a dirty job, but somebodies gotta do it.

There is a dirty little rumor floating around that the portion that is polished off the rice, the "Nuka" in Japanese, is wasted, or thrown away. This is in no way correct. The Nuka is used in a variety of different ways, the "red nuka," the first 20% of the rice polishings, is used in Livestock feeds, whole grain foods, and Suke-mono (Japanese pickles), The "naka nuka (say that 10 times fast)", the 20~30% portion, is used in whole grain foods  and other bread products, and the "shiro nuka", the 30%+ portion, is used in High end confections and as high quality rice flour.

After the rice is polished, there is still a thin coating of Nuka on the rice that must be washed away.  Until a year or two ago this was done by hand with large buckets and strainers; A very labor intensive process which took 5 or 6 people, and a lot of time. Now, Daishinshu uses these neat little rice washing machines that wash the rice by circulating it with a jet of water. A method that now only takes 2~3 people, about half the time, and is softer on the rice.

Rice washing machine

Pouring rice into the washer

Washer in action

The rice is washed in about 20 kg loads for about 2 minutes, then soaked in water for a specific amount of time (differs depending on the type of rice and the polish rate). Everything is timed down to the second using a stopwatch.

Morimoto-san soaking a bag of rice (notice he is holding a stopwatch)

Polished and washed Sake rice, in the midst of saoking

How do you know when the rice has sucked up enough water? Weigh it!

Generally when the rice has sucked up around 30% of it's own weight in water it's ready for the next step, Steaming!

The large steaming pot (Koshiki in Japanese) capable of steaming around 800 kg of rice at a time. The white sacks around the rim are full of small plastic beads. The sacks are placed at the bottom of the pot so the steam does not hit the rice directly and cause it to break.

The steaming pot ready to be loaded with rice

The steam is started and then the rice is added in a little bit at a time. this allows the steam to thoroughly permeate the rice and give it an even steaming.

After all the rice has been loaded into the pot a fabric cover is placed over the top of the pot and tightened down to create pressure inside the pot.

The steam flow is controlled by a flap at the top of the cover, closing the flap creates more pressure and increases the heat inside the pot, opening the flap allows more steam to escape, and lowers the pressure and temperature.

The steaming pot is truly a site to see, once turned on a huge plume of super heated steam bellows out, making it a spectacle as well as a true danger, as being horribly burned is quite possible. Steaming the rice takes about an hour, while the rice is steaming the crew eats breakfast.

The freshly steamed (and extremely hot) rice is then shoveled by hand into a bucket

The bucket is then wheeled at break neck speed to the cooling area outside the Koji-muro (Koji room)

The rice is then spread out on a cloth and allowed to cool. (Yes that's me bending over the steaming rice) Even with gloves my hands were mildly burned (when I took the gloves off my hands were bright red). The rice is cooled down to about 35~40˚C before being moved into the Koji-muro. The stands that we are cooling the rice on was hand made by the Toji this year, up until now they cooled the rice on top of rubber sheets on the floor which, as I found out a couple of times when the loads were big and we had to use the floor, was extremely back breaking and knee hurting work.

Once brought into the Koji-muro, the rice is further cooled to around 31˚C before applying the Koji spores. During the cooling process the rice is mixed and flipped several times to allow even cooling.

The Toji then applies the Koji Spores

The can used to apply the koji spores, the lid of the can has a screen mesh built in, from which the spores float out.

Steamed rice with Koji spores on it (the green powder is the koji)

After the spores are applied, it is left to rest for a few minutes before the rice is mixed and flipped. The sporing process is repeated again two or three times.

After the koji spores have been applied, the rice is let to sit for a few hours. Then piled,

And bundled in blankets. It is then allowed to sit for about a day.

The next morning at 5:30 am the rice is unbundled and passed through a metal screen to break up any clumps. At this stage the rice is getting harder, as it dries out a little, but is not yet visibly coated with koji mold. This is one of the thin skin parts.

The Toji then transfers the rice into wooden trays

At first only half of the tray is used. This is to ensure that the rice does not cool too much before the koji has started to fully develop. The koji rice is then left to sit for about a day.

The next day the koji rice is mixed thoroughly and spread out so that it takes up the entire tray. At this point you can just begin to see white spots of koji mold growing on the rice. (more skin thinning)

The trays are then wrapped in blankets and allowed to sit for another day. During this time period the trays are rotated several times to keep the temperature in all the trays even. The temperature of the koji rice can climb to as high as 45˚C during this time.

The next day the koji rice (which, maybe it's just me, I thought would be granulated like you always see in books, but was actually clumped into one big piece in the shape of the tray) is mixed and the clumps are broken up until it is more or less individual kernels. This is of coarse done with your bare hands. Not only is the koji rice hot, if it were bath water at 45˚C you probably wouldn't want to get in, but the rubbing action required to break up the clumps, again makes your skin quite thin. (my hands were bright red at the end of this step too)

Finished koji rice after it has been broken up and mixed. You can clearly see a white coating of koji mold at this point. I don't know if anyone else out there has eaten warm koji rice before, this was a first for me (although I had eaten cooled koji rice before in the past), the sweet koji flavors expand in your mouth, and as long as you keep chewing, even long after the kernels have disappeared, the flavor keeps coming out kind of like gum. A truly incredible experience.

The koji rice is then spread out on the trays again, and a pattern of a circle with two lines in the middle is drawn into it (in order to assure even cooling and drying). The koji rice is then left uncovered for half a day to cool in the koji-muro. At night when the other trays are being shuffled around, the finished trays are pushed out of the koji-muro into the cold brewery rice cooling area. The koji rice is thoroughly cooled over night, effectively halting the koji growth and hardening the koji rice considerably.

This is the end of the Kome-koji making process, but not the end of the kome-koji's story. At this point the kome-koji is ready to be used to make sake, and it's story continues inside the story of brewing sake (told in the next post!).

I hope that this post is helpful, I had a lot of fun working at the sake brewery. It is really hard work, and I have developed a real appreciation for the people who are willing to brave this kind hard work in order to make the sake that we all love and enjoy.

Join me in the next post, and delve into the brewing world of the sake brewery!

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

Making Sake with Daishinshu Day 1

So i'm back in Sapporo, and ready to start blogging!

Things are starting to heat up for the holiday season, so before things get too crazy, I will recap on the sake making experience.

On the afternoon of the 16th, I flew in to Matsumoto airport, an airport so small it only has flights to and from Sapporo 4 times a week, and is on the list of airports to be shut down now that the economy isn't doing so well (a big problem for those of us who live in Hokkaido and want to go to Nagano, as flying into Tokyo means a switch to the bullet train and about twice the price).

The small turbo-prop plane we flew in on.

I was picked up at the airport by the brewery president Ryuichi Tanaka.

Tanaka-san

The drive to the brewery took about an hour on the tollway.

On the way, Tanaka-san played a bit of tour guide giving me some general info about the surrounding area.

Daishinshu brewery is nestled in a beautiful valley between the Northern Alps (Kita Alps) and Southern Alps (Minami Alps) mountain ranges.  Mountain ranges named for their likeness to the Swiss Alps.  Quite and impressive sight, as the mountains jut up suddenly and steeply from the valley floor.

Northern Alps

Southern Alps (bigger than Northern Alps)

Southern Alps from the airplane, on the way home.

Daishinshu, as a company, is broken up into two places. One closer to Matsumoto City, mainly the company offices and some bottling facilities (no brewing takes place there), and the other, a little farther to the north west, where they make the sake.  The reason for the split was that the brewery grew too large for their original location, the current office and bottling building, so the brewing facilities were relocated.

Once we reached the brewery, I was handed off to Katsumi Tanaka (The presidents younger brother, in charge of brewery operations). Katsumi-san and I have met several times in Hokkaido (I have met the president many times in Hokkaido as well), and he is very good friends with Meishu no Yutaka's president. Katsumi-san gave me a lighting tour of the brewery, mainly to let me know where I was expected to be the next morning at 5:30 AM.

Katsumi-san

The day's work is more or less over at 5:30 PM, so after the tour it was time for dinner. Lunch and dinner are prepared by a really nice lady hired on as a cook, and breakfast is prepared on rotation by the five people who live at the brewery.

After dinner, it was time for the evening work, which consisted of tending to the yeast starters and Kome-koji (Koji molded rice). I helped out in the Koji-muro (room where the Kome-koji is made). The Koji-muro is more or less a sauna. With the temperature around 30~35˚C (85~95˚F) and the humidity bouncing around 50~70% depending on the work that is being done, you break a sweat pretty quickly. While being relatively inhospitable to Humans (unless you live in southern Japan), this is the ideal temp and humidity for our little moldy friends.

The nights work consisted of rotating the Kome-koji trays so that the temperature would remain constant throughout all the trays, and checking the temperatures of all the different stages of koji growth. Last the Toji (Master brewer) checked the temperature of the room, and adjusted it by opening little windows here and there to cool things down, or turning on and off various heaters to warm things up and/or keep the temp steady. The Toji is the king of the Koji-muro, and it is his touch that creates the Kome-koji that will later determine the greater part of the overall flavor and fragrance of the sake. (I will discuss the Kome-koji making process at Daishinshu in more detail in later posts.)

The end of the evening work meant the beginning of the evening drinks. That night's drink of choice: Daishinshu's futsu-shu, Okan (warmed). A good table sake with a small nose of rich rice aromas, and a medium to full body with a sturdy acid base and a crisp dry finish.

Well that's it for day 1. I plan on splitting the weeks events into three or four posts by the different steps in the brewing process rather than by day at the brewery.  The reason for this is that I jumped around between different jobs on the same day, so doing things by day might be kind of confusing, and putting everything in one post would be way too long.

See you at the next post!

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

Unexpected difficulties

So it turns out that Daishinshu doesn't have an internet connection that I can use so, I will be posting from my cell phone.

Today is my second day at the brewery, but my first full day. yesterday was mostly travling, and then a quick tour of the brewery.
Today's work started at 5AM, whith a trip to the koji room. We started a fresh bactch of koji today so the first line of business was to make room for it. This meant a fair amount of moving things around. After making Some room it was time to steam some rice. The large steam drum that they use was very impressive, and quite frankly terrifying. Steaming the rice took about an hour, then came cooling, and then spreading the koji spores.

All in all I spent most all of today making kome koji.

I will keep posting from my cell, but look forward to a full recap when I get home.

Cheers

Carlin

Winter is HERE!!!

Well folks it's official: Winter is here.
How do I know?
Well it's not the cold weather, or the snow, or even the Christmas decorations that are already going up in department stores.
My sign came through the store doors in two sizes, 1.8L and 720ml!

That's right I'm talking about the Winter brew, "Shiboritatte (fresh pressed) Sake"!!!
Riding in on the snow here in Hokkaido, we received our first Shiboritatte of the year.
I present to you:

Shimeharitsuru / 〆張鶴

Shiboritatte Nama Genshu / しぼりたって生原酒

Alcohol: 20% / Polish: 60%

SMV: +4

Miyao Shuzo / Niigata Prefecture

Tasting notes:
On the nose: When I first opened the bottle and poured this sake, the nose was huge, with tons of rice, and very sharp. As I let it sit in the glass a little the nose opened up and became more complex, with rich fruit aromas and good depth. Overall very fresh with hints of yeast. The high alcohol came through on the nose a little when chilled, but mellowed as the temperature rose sitting in the glass.

On the palate: Very clean; lots of full bodied fruit and rice flavors. Slight fruity sweetness was balanced beautifully against a dry body with crisp acidity, and a bite from the alcohol on the finish. The finish was crisp and clean. As the sake sat in the glass and warmed a little the acidity mellowed out and the alcohol became almost invisible.

Other notes: 

• This is a Genshu sake (Undiluted sake), so be careful of the high alcohol content. 
• This is a nama (unpasteurized or raw) sake so keep this one in the fridge. 
• Being Shimeharitsuru this is a Niigata prefecture sake, although, in my opinion, this sake does not fall into the traditional Niigata style (light and dry), as it has a full body and a good amount of flavor. 
• Despite the polish rate of 60%, Shimeharitsuru Shiboritatte is in fact a Futsu-shu. This is due in part to the kind of rice they are using and the amount of alchohol that was added to the Moromi (main mash/fermentation). Although it is classified as Futsu-shu there is nothing Futsu about this sake. 
• This is only the first Shiboritatte sake to come in, so look forward to plenty more to come, as well as a turn over to this year’s sakes. 

On a final note, I will be heading off to brew sake with Daishinshu for a week starting this Monday the 16th through the 23rd. Both my camera and my computer will be in tow, so look forward to a week of behind the scenes sake making.

I will be posting tasting notes on more shiboritatte and new sakes as they come out, including the ones that I help make!!

See you all next week!

Meishu no Yutaka Staff
Carlin

First snow of the season!!

The first snow of the year fell here in sapporo yesterday!
The temperature is now well below freezing (although they say it will warm up a bit by the weekend),
and it is starting to feel like the sake brewing season again!

The first snow came just about the same time as some very good news!!

I will be Joining Daishinshuu Shuzo for a week and learning how to make sake FIRST HAND!!!

Join me between Nov. 16th~23rd as I enter the world of the Jizake Sake makers.

True handmade sake; no koji machines, no fancy rice steaming conveyors, only sweat, blood, tears, and a lot of hard work!

I will also be heading over to Kozaemon (Nakashima shuzo) and Nishida shuzo (makers of Denshu, Utou, Kiyoizumi etc.) in February of next year for a week at a time.

I am looking forward to sharing my adventures and insights with you!

Cheers!

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

Hiyaoroshi PART 3!!!

Continuing on my Hiyaoroshi binge...
Great fall brews are popping up everywhere!
This time we are going to take a trip (an imaginary trip) down to Akita Prefecture to visit our friends at Akita Seishu.

Makers of Kariho (刈穂) and Dewatsuru (出羽鶴), made an appearance at the sake tasting event the other day, Akita Seishu is throwing down all the stops in this years Hiyaoroshi, definitely a must drink!

Kariho / 刈穂

Yamahai Junmai Hiyaoroshi / 山廃純米冷卸

Alcohol: 16% / Polish: 60%

SMV: +3

Akita Seishu / Akita Prefecture

Tasting notes:

On the nose: Big nose with lots of sweet honey and over ripe banana rounded by a sharpness to the nose and hints of rice.

On the palate: Light to medium bodied, honey and banana notes continue, but are far less prominent. Comes off sweet at first, but finishes quite dry. Not as round a mouth feel as I was expecting.

* Above tasting notes were done in a white wine glass, I later switched to a smaller "Sake cup." The result was a much mellower nose, a much rounder mouth feel and smoother finish.

Other notes:

• I didn't play around too much with the temperature of this brew but I wouldn't be surprised if it drinks really well at room temp or luke warm.
• The difference between the white wine glass and the sake cup was really big and I was thoroughly  surprised at what a huge difference just changing the cup can do to the flavor of the sake. This was a real learning experience for me, and in the boom of "drink your sake from a white wine glass," I offer these words of advice: White wine glasses are not always better.
• This is a textbook example (although much tastier than a textbook) of a yamahai sake, and would be well paired with heartier foods, although not overly heavily flavored foods, as well as tangy foods like sweet and sour.
• This sake is available in both the 1.8L and 720ml bottle size.

Thats it for this installment, I'll keep drinking if you keep reading.

(Thats a lie... I'll keep drinking no matter what you do)

Cheers

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

Hokkaido Sake Store Association's fall tasting!

So as it turns out I was too busy helping out with the event That I didn't get a chance to up anything from my phone. I did manage to get in some pictures, so I will give a recap of the event in a normal post.

This was the second tasting event for the year that the Hokkaido Sake Store Association (Hokutou Sengoku kai 北斗千国会 in Japanese) has put on. It is a yearly event with a spring and fall tasting.

Six sake breweries and two shochu distilleries makes for a lot of good cheer!

Here are some highlights:

The event hall Just as things were opening up. There were booths set up around the perimeter of the room with tables laid out in the center for "notes."

Going around the room counter clock wise we had Ryusei's (龍勢) president Fuji-san. Personally delivering his trademark "delicious acidity" (旨い酸味).

Next up we had Matsuoka-san from Rokkasen (六歌仙) serving up a delicious selection of Yamahoushi (山法師) Including a fantastic Daiginjo Genshu (not on sale yet) that was to die for. Also up for taste was their umeshu and sparkling sake Hitotoki.

In the next booth over we had Nakaya-san from Fukumitsuya, delivering their usual blend of awesomeness, in both Kagatobi (加賀鳶) and Kuro-obi (黒帯). Plus looking smart in his bright orange Happi!

Next in line was Akita Seishu (秋田清酒) bringing to the table a little bit of Kariho (刈穂) magic, and mixing up the routine with a little Dewatsuru (出羽鶴). The booth was so busy that I unfortunately could only get this shot of the bottles when the event was closing. (^_^;

Continuing we have Tanaka-san, president of Daishinshu Shuzou! He brought a great selection of sake including several of my most favorite, and a good selection of fall brews. If you haven't enjoyed a Daishinshu brew, you are missing out!

Unfortunately I didn't get around to getting a picture of the last brewery Jyousan (常山), but they were carrying a pretty impressive selection of their own.

KAGOSHIMA SHOCHU!

That about says it, a fine selection of sweet potato shochu from our friends down south.

This is the booth that I was working in. "what? That's not sake you fool that's smoke eggs!"

Yes thats right, smoked quail eggs and chicken eggs.

Meishu no Yutaka was in full force with our friends over at Big Egg (the woman in the pic is Wada-san from the egg company) This tasty little treat goes like bread and butter with sake, and is our newest joint venture in our escapades to further all things sake.

Things underway in the second half of the event (the event was broken into two parts, the first for restaurant, bar, etc owners, and the second for everyone else). Every one drank their fill, and then went home with a sake souvenir!

Lastly, my favorite part, the after party!

With close to 100 different sakes to choose from, it truly was heaven in a smoke filled room (A high percent of Japanese people smoke...inside). (>_<)

This is the way to throw a real sake party!

That's it for this time around, will be posting tasting notes on some more great sake soon so stay tuned!

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

WHAT I AM DRINKING RIGHT NOW!

TENGUMAI KANAZAWA KOUBOU
AND
DAISHINSHUU TSUGA NO MORI
LOOK FORWARD TO NOTES SOON!
CARLIN

(note from my PC: Since blogger now accepts email blog posts, I thought I would give it a try.
Tomorrow is a big sake event so I will throw up some pics when I have the chance.
I apologize  about the all capitols, but using caps normally is a pain in the butt from my phone.
By the way, I will be posting from my phone, so posts will be short and mainly for the pics.
Let me know if you love it or hate it.

Meishu no Yutaka staff
Carlin

Nihonshu no Hi (Sake Day)!

In celebration of Sake Day, and because the net is alive with the sound of sake day, I would like to give a little explanation I like to call: "what the heck is Sake Day?"

Sake Day (Nihonshu no Hi, 日本酒の日) Is much more than a party put on by True Sake SF, or a celebration at Sakaya NYC (although both of those are an awesome way to celebrate Sake Day!).

First "why October 1st?"
Two reasons:

1. The Kanji (Japanese symbol) for Sake 酒 is made up of two parts: the three lines on the right, representing water, and the covered box part on the left 酉, which represents a Sake jug or pot.  The progression from pot to Sake is believed to have gone something like this:

the symbol 酉 Can be read as "tori とり" which can mean bird 鳥. Tori or bird is the tenth animal in the chinese zodiac (which Japan uses as well), and when put to the Roman calendar becomes the tenth month of the year, October. Therefore the first day of the month of the bird is Sake Day! And:
2. In Japan we use a really confusing system (for those who are not used to it) for marking the date of production for sake. Some of you out there may be saying "Oh yeah, I've heard of that, the Imperial calendar, Heisei year 21 and all that, old news." That is only part of the story. In fact, just to confuse you Roman Calendar only people out there, the sake world uses three labeling systems. The Roman Calendar, the Imperial Calendar, and to top it off The BY Calendar (Short for Brewers Year).
   
   The Brewers Year calendar is about 6 months behind the Imperial calendar, so that the start of the brewers calendar is July (Meaning that the sake you have been drinking all year was made in BY 20 and the sake they are about to start brewing will be BY 21). Why is this important? Before 1965 the start of the brewers year was October 1st! In 1965 in order to better accommodate an earlier brewing season, as technology was Changing to allow it, the National Brewers Association of Japan Changed the start of the brewing year to July 1st.

The very first sake day was held on October 1st, 1978, as decreed by the national Brewers Association that year.

"So now I know why Sake Day is on Oct 1st, but what am I supposed to do for Sake Day?"

Well similar to St. Patties day in Ireland one should dress in red and make an ass of themselves, right?

Not exactly... Although I won't stop you.

Sake day is a day when we should all grab our favorite brew, relax and enjoy.

A lot of blood sweat and tears goes into the making of every bottle of sake, and we should all take a moment to reflect on the fabulous brew.

Going to True sake's event or stopping by Sakaya NYC is a good start too!

If you live in Japan it gets even easier!

Just stop by your local Jizake Senmonten (地酒専門店 specialty sake store) and grab your favorite brew.

Till next time

Cheers

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin