Museum of Sake Journal Spring 2015 | Page 56

DAISHICHI SAKE BREWERY THE TOJI’S TECHNIQUE: Daishichi’s Toji, Takanobu Sato is a kimoto specialist who heads up the team of 12 ‘kurabito’, brewery workers. Trained in Iwate prefecture, he has been with Daishichi for 20 years. He’s a member of the Nanbu toji guild, whose characteristic technique is to ferment very slowly at a low temperature creating a distinctive Northern, Tohoku style which would not work in warmer Southern climes where the higher temperatures accelerate  the fermentation. RICE, WATER AND YEAST: Unlike many breweries, Ohta-San explained they only use two sake-rice varieties: “Yamada Nishiki and Gohyakumangoku. We focus on these because both were developed long ago and they are stable, healthy types. Their DNA is stable. Many new types are being developed using artificial methods which are unstable”. “Gohyakumangoku rice is from Northern Japan and has a hard, clear taste. Yamada Nishiki is a much softer type of rice from a warmer area”.. “creating a rich taste and good flavour.” For fermentation they use the most commonly used yeast, number 7. Originally bought from the Sake Brewers Association, Ohta-San explained how they have made it unique to Daishichi. Kimoto, unlike more modern methods, creates a particularly harsh environment for the yeasts, so only the strongest can survive “It’s survival of fittest, the weakest yeasts die off.” They then select the best yeasts from the best sakes they make, so that the quality of the yeast is always improving. The water comes from a pure-water source: a natural well, the water lying 8 metres under the brewery. Whilst most water in Japan is relatively soft compared to Europe, their water is of ‘medium’ hardness. THE PRESIDENT’S VISION: President Ohta-San and his team seem to be on a continual quest to find the best equipment, and methods to make sake: embracing innovative ways, as well as holding onto old, labour-intensive traditions should they produce better quality results. They have sourced traditional, old-style iron pots because they create particularly hot steam, steaming the rice so it is dry on the outside and wet in the middle-perfect conditions for sake making. They’ve also developed a modern bottling line using nitrogen to reduce the possibility of oxidation and ensure their sake stays particularly fresh. But the source of most pride is their award-winning ‘super-flat polishing’ technique. SUPER-FLAT POLISHING: Premium sake makers have long known that to produce clean flavoured sake it is important to remove the outer parts of the rice which contain fats and proteins which can give off-flavours. The goal is to proportionately have as much of the ‘shinpaku’, the opaque white, starch-rich heart of the rice remaining possible to make the sake with. The highest grades, and most expensive styles of sake are generally those which have been polished to the highest degree. For the most premium style of sake daiginjo, by law only 50% of the grain remains. Some of the most expensive commercially available sakes have taken this to an extreme, polishing further still, so that as little as 19% of the grain remains. MUSEUM OF SAKE JOURNAL 56