Touring Sake Breweries in Japan

F U S H I M I, Japan, March 9, 2004 -- We wound our way through the drafty atticof the brewery, toward the source of the aroma.

My wife, her mother and I had caught a whiff the moment wearrived at the Tamanohikari sake brewery a half-hour earlier: thefaintly sweet, floral scent of fermenting rice. We were nowfollowing that scent to pots the size of an office elevator thatheld the stewing rice.

I had picked Tamanohikari — which means "the brilliance of agem" — from dozens of breweries in Kyoto's Fushimi district as thefirst leg of our tasting tour only because I had tried one of itsvarieties of sake at a Tokyo restaurant months earlier.

It turned out to be a treat, especially for amateur sakeenthusiasts like us.

Most breweries here offer tours, including Gekkeikan, the367-year-old company that is the largest sake producer andexporter, as well as supplier to the imperial household since 1909.And because they are within easy walking distance of each other,it's an ideal place to delve into the country's sake-makinghistory.

A Storied History

Sake in Japan has been traced back to the third century, whenits forerunner, a fermented gruel, was brought from China. Sincethen, the country's national drink has been memorialized in historytexts and literature.

Despite the decline of sake consumption since the 1970s in theface of growing demand for beer, wine and distilled liquors, sakeremains the drink of choice for religious rituals, weddingceremonies and festivals.

Fushimi's heyday as a sake-producer came during the 17th centuryunder the rule of the shogun. Brewers were drawn to the area'sabundant spring water — from groundwater and melting mountainrun-off — as well as its proximity to river ports. Over time,Fushimi also became increasingly important as a key trading postwith the newly relocated capital to the east, Edo, which was laterknown as Tokyo.

Tamanohikari was a relative latecomer to Fushimi. Since movinghere in 1949, it has refashioned itself as a boutique brewer,making only premium "junmai" — pure rice — sake from rice andwater.

‘Traditional’ Sake

Aficionados say adding a bit of alcohol after fermentation givessake a smoother taste. Most of the 1,500 breweries nationwideemploy this technique, which became widespread during World War IIwhen a scarcity of rice forced brewers to boost yields by dilutingbatches.

But Tamanohikari doesn't add alcohol; its sake has only thealcohol that comes from fermenting rice. The result: a more explosive taste, weaker aroma and higheracidity than other types.

Only 9 percent, or almost 21 million gallons, of the sake soldin Japan qualifies as junmai, according to the quasi-publicoverseer National Research Institute of Brewing. Purists regardthis as "traditional" sake.

"My father was the first among brewers to make junmai sakeafter World War II. This was in 1964," Tamanohikari Vice PresidentHiroshi Ujita said. "There was a lot of debate in the governmentabout what to call it and how to tax it."

To distinguish itself, Tamanohikari has stuck to low-techbrewing methods. Our free tour gave us a firsthand glimpse.

By the time we arrived, the morning work was finished. We hadthe place to ourselves.

The Grand Tour

We started with a mini-course on sake-making led by productionchief Ken Tsujimoto. Then, we donned lab coats and shower caps andfollowed him to the brewery attic.

Before sake rice is fermented, it is polished to get rid of theproteins and fats that surround the kernel's starchy core. Proteinsand fats can spoil a sake's flavor and give it an undesirable tint.As a rule, the more polished the kernels, the more elegant thefinal product's taste.

At Tamanohikari, computer-controlled polishing machines shave 30percent to 50 percent off each kernel, 2,640 pounds of rice at atime. The rest of the work is labor-intensive.

While 24-hour automation has done away with backbreaking jobs atbig breweries, Tamanohikari is relatively traditional: Its workersstill get their hands dirty.

After the rice is polished, workers soak and steam it. Theyspread it out on long tables to cool and later fold in the koji, ormold, which breaks down and converts the starch into sugars.

Water, moto, or seed mash, and yeast, which helps ferment sakeand is responsible for its bouquet and flavor, are added later.

Tsujimoto led us to a room, kept at 84 degrees and 38 percenthumidity, where workers combine rice and mold spores to make kojiin shallow wooden troughs coated in persimmon tannin. There, we bitinto the firm, starchy grains and inhaled their nutty scent.

Okura Museum

Back in the attic, Tsujimoto pointed out the crosshatch of beamssupporting the gabled roof. Living in the wood, he said, are moldspores that mix with the cultivated spores in the open pots offermenting rice.

"That interaction between spores will give our sake a flavorthat no other brewer can replicate," Tsujimoto said.

Once the rice, or mash, has spent four weeks becoming soupy, itis filtered. An impromptu tasting session began outside thefiltering room. From plastic cups, we drank the tangy, lightlycarbonated sake, which reminded me of apples. It would later bestored and then bottled.

We returned to the classroom for more tastings, where we tried alight, sweet sake, called Yamahai, and Omachi, a drier, more floraland robust "junmai daiginjo" sake that is made with rice polishedto 50 percent of its original size.

Our next stop was Gekkeikan brewery's Okura Museum. On displaywere relics of the past: Rope-bound wooden casks, mixing bucketsnamed after the fox and raccoon, "tokkuri" earthenware jugs,woodblock stamps and branding irons to label casks. Brewers' worksongs played softly in the background.

Outside the museum, water trickled from a natural spring into awooden bucket.

For brewers, Fushimi's biggest allure is its water. It is richin the carbonates, phosphates and potassium needed for yeastcultivation but has little of the iron that can degrade sake ormanganese that can discolor it.

Experts say water can make or break a sake, and claim they cantaste any impurities. Nowadays, many breweries chemically filterwater to get the desired balance of elements.

Gekkeikan's spring water had no aftertaste, unlike the tap waterin Tokyo we were used to drinking. After seeing local brewing toolsand techniques, it was a fitting end to our tour: Here was thesource, the lifeblood of Fushimi's prosperous sake trade.

If You Go …

GETTING THERE: Americans can fly directly to KansaiInternational Airport in Osaka from Los Angeles, San Francisco,Detroit or Honolulu. There are also direct flights from majorEuropean capitals. An express train from Kansai airport to Kyototakes 75 minutes. From other cities in the United States andEurope, flights to Kansai are accessible via Tokyo's NaritaInternational Airport. A bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto takes 2 1/2hours. Fushimi is about a half-hour south of Kyoto.

GETTING AROUND: There are about 1,500 sake breweries throughoutJapan. Fushimi has been famous for its sake since the shogunateruled Japan during the 17th to 19th centuries. Gekkeikan is Japan'sbiggest brewery and a major exporter, but the area is dotted bysmall and mid-sized breweries, most within walking distance of eachother.

SEASONS: Kyoto is most picturesque from late March to mid-Aprilwhen the cherry blossoms bloom and in mid- to late November duringthe foliage season. But it's also when Japanese prefer to see theancient capital, so be prepared for crowds at temples and shrines.Lodging can be scarce and prices skyrocket during those periods.Tourist information centers can offer help booking rooms. Kyotoprefecture tourist information:www.pref.kyoto.jp/trade/tourism/tourism.html.

SAKE: Sake is Japan's national drink, and most restaurants, barsand liquor stores stock both premium and normal table brews. Expectto pay around $15 to $60 for a 54-ounce bottle, or $10 to $30 for a22-ounce bottle. A 54-ounce bottle of premium sake can set you back$100. For more information, visit Japan's National ResearchInstitute of Brewing: www.nrib.go.jp/English/English.htm or JohnGauntner's sakeworld.com newsletter: www.sake-world.com. TheTamanohikari sake brewery is located at 545 Higashisakai; for moreinformation, visit www.sake.com. The Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum islocated at 247 Minamihama-cho; for more information, visitwww.gekkeikan-sake.com.