Memoirs of a Sake Breweryお酒屋さんについての思いで

Back in March, I visited a fantastic sake brewery in Yamanouchi Town of Nagano Prefecture. The company, called Tamamura-Honten & Co., operates at the bottom of Shiga Heights, home to the world's largest network of ski resorts and the venue for women's downhill and the super giant slolam in the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Founded in 1805 (Bunka 2), the company boasts two hundred years of experience and has brewed a local brand of sake called "engi" (縁喜) for the past century. The brewery was recently renovated and reopened by SATO Kisoji VII, the seventh generation descendant of the company's original founder, SATO Kisoji I.

Of course visitng any brewery is bound to be fun. As with about any desirable visit to a brewery, my friends, Yuriko and Matt, took the opportunity to try lots of of homemade sake and beer. After shootin back a couple shots and getting a quick little buzz, we mozied on up to the second floor of the brewery, which contains a collection of modern Japanese art and local artifacts. These apparently belong to the Sato family, who - we found out later - live just across the street from the brewery. Before leaving, Matt and I stocked up on some sake and beer to take back to friends in Kanagawa, we took lots of pictures of antiques in and around the brewery, and indulged in accepting some free sake cups from one of the owners. Incidentally, we found the coolest antique, an old, Japanese fire truck, sitting conveniently between the entrance to the brewery and a modern-day, Japanese vending machine full of Kirin beer.

The highlight of the visit, however, was yet to come: an unexpected invitation from the owner of Tamamura Honten (whom I assume is Sato VI since Sato VII, pictured on the company web page, looks about 20 years younger) into the family's private residence. The invitation was totally unexpected and an amazing and rare treat. Mr. Sato - I'm just going to keep calling him that until I find out otherwise - was clearly the descendant of a prosperous line of rural aristocrats (read gohno). His house was the largest, most traditional, and opulent country dwelling I have ever seen in Japan.

Truly and deeply inspired by this trip to the brewer's kingdom, I have decided to jot down just a few notes here on the history and process of sake brewing (oi la la): Apparently Japanese people have been brewing sake in some shape or form for the past 2000 years - that is, ten times as long as the Sato family has been doing it! The alcohol is brewed using a microorganism called koji, yeast, and a special type of rice. Japanese rice is generally divided into two types: table rice that is eaten, and sake rice (sakamai) that is used exclusively for sake brewing. This variety of rice is large-grained, soft, and has a low protein content. Requiring more complicated methods for cultivating, this type of rice is much more expensive than table rice.

The ingredient called koji converts the starch in the rice into sugar. Thus, compared to the fermentation of wine, that of sake is more complicated, involving a second step. With wine, yeast is added directly to pressed grapes in order to created alcohol. However, with sake, the fundamental ingredient, rice, cannot begin fermenting until it has been converted to sugar through the use of koji. After the sugar has been produced, yeast is then added, (of course, fermentation takes place) which in turn produces alcohol. Because these two processes (Saccharification and fermentation) occur in the same container, the process is apparently called "multiple parallel fermentation."

Sake has an alcohol content of 13-16% (oh la la). As with most brews, the quality of water used is extremely important. With this in mind, the Tamamura Honten's position at the base of Shiga Heights seems especially strategic as the natural waters trickling down from the mountains are apparently the most essential ingredient for producing high quality sake.