this is how sake is handmade in japan
so today we are in kobe japan and i'm
gonna take you inside the hakutsu
brewery and show you how sake is
handmade but before i start like always
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you on this tour let's go
get your cups ready as i'm taking you to
hakutsuru located in natagogo kobe japan
a flourishing sake producing area since
the edo period today there are 1550 sake
breweries here accounting for more than
one quarter of japan's total sake
production and this brewery founded in
1743 is a top sake producer in the area
with 100 hard-working brewers crafting
sake love not only in japan but all
throughout the world the factory is
probably most known for maru the
everyday japanese man's daily sake
produced throughout the year but today
i'm taking you on a different path
produced only in the winter you and i
are going on a journey to see first hand
how these expert brewers use the
traditional method of handcrafting its
highest grade sake daiginzo truly
earning the title made in japan
[Music]
cool i've made it inside this is always
the fun part let's do this
and there we go
all right let's begin sake ingredients
are pretty simple rice water and koji a
specific japanese mold used for culinary
fermentation rice suitable for sake
though is a little different from the
rice you and i eat as the grain must be
large hard and low in protein and fat to
create a clear sake taste which is why
the brewers use the king of sake rice
yamada nishiki grown here in hyogo it's
polished down to 38 compared to standard
sake rice at 70 which requires even more
delicate care and flawless technique to
properly craft the highest end sake
oh damn and it all starts with japan's
typical morning radio taizo the kurabito
aka sake brewers have a fairly strenuous
day ahead so they all start off with a
morning stretch over loudspeaker once
limbered up the brewers watch and
sanitize their hands to ensure the
cleanest environment as possible
okay let's see what's going on over here
[Music]
swish splash this is where the brewers
get crafting against each grain of rice
is washed and soaked before it's made
into sucking a critical point in the
process as every second counts literally
even a three second soak would increase
the rice water content by 0.1 percent
equipped with hundreds of years of
knowledge and experience that brewers
are able to finally gauge and infuse
water into each grain of rice in a
manually controlled process of buckets
of water and rice apparently back in the
day the brewers would sing to time the
process but these days they use a timer
to craft a more accurate sake
oh cool i think this is where they steal
the race
[Music]
time to get turned up so a day later the
mushimai begins the steaming process the
brewers load yesterday's silk rice into
a giant rice steamer called koshiki
which can seem up to 350 kilograms 770
pounds of rice in about an hour unlike
most commonly used factory rice steamers
which steam rice on a long conveyor belt
the pressure of the koshiki can be
adjusted throughout the entire steaming
process which allows for experienced and
highly skilled drawers to manually
control the end result of the steamed
rice apparently this hand crafted sake
has a long fermentation process which
requires a rather hard outer rice shell
otherwise it would turn into mush along
the way but soft enough center for the
koji to grow the koshiki allows the
brewers to attain this perfect balance
hi what are you doing
oh can i ask what you need to be most
careful about in this process
is
[Music]
so now that the rice has been seen
they're about to take it out
let's pop this top already
oh i guess they have to coordinate a bit
before they get the road on the show
apparently this part of the process
needs to be done quickly to ensure that
the rice cools down properly and the
moisture evaporates and from here the
steamed rice is separated for different
stages of the sake crafting koji
productions shubo and muromi
no cap it's steaming make no mistake the
rice is extremely hot yet the skilled
brewers still use their bare hands to
spread it as it's the only way for them
to truly judge and feel the conditions
of the rice
at the perfect temperature of 40 degrees
celsius 104 fahrenheit the rice is moved
to the kojimura a specially designed
room to grow koji which is hot and humid
kind of like a sauna it's critical for
the brewers to spread out each grain of
rice evenly so they cool down at the
same rate
once spread the rice is rested for two
hours with the temperature and humidity
perfectly controlled unlike
mass-produced sake where the rice is
cooled by machines rice cooled in an
open room requires master brewers who
can detect the slightest of changes in
the rice by feel and sight alone and
then can skillfully make the required
adjustments
okay let's go
we've made it to the tiny kitty stage
where the koji spores are spread onto
the rice
[Music]
nobody move everyone inside watching
must remain completely still and silent
as the koji spores are so tiny in light
that any movement could blow it onto the
floor or cause it to be unevenly
distributed onto the rice ruining the
entire batch koji mold itself is used to
make many traditional japanese foods
such as soy sauce and miso in japanese
sake it produces the alcohol by breaking
down the starch into sugar also known as
secarification or malting excuse me so
what's the deal here
now that the brewers have evenly spread
the koji mold throughout the rice they
wrap the rice up to help lock in the
moisture and promote the growth of the
mold apparently the table itself is a
scale so the brewers are able to quickly
measure how much water content remains
without having to unwrap the rice so
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your first domain or website cool that's
it let's continue on with this handmade
sake adventure so just behind me is the
rice all wrapped up let's see what
happens next
[Music]
here we go again overnight the rice
naturally gets harder and sticks
together so the brewers must use their
bare hands along with a sifter to
separate every single grain of rice
called kirikaishi
hot sake the brewers make sure to
separate every last grain
once completely separated the brewers
lay rice into wooden trays called
kojibuta to further encourage the koji
growth by separating the rice into
smaller piles it's easier to control the
temperature and water content of each
grain ensuring that the mold grows at
the same rate
now the koji rice must rest for one more
day but that's exactly the opposite for
the brewers as they continuously monitor
the temperature humidity and water
content throughout the day and even
through the night by regularly shuffling
the trays and mixing the koji some of
the brewers even live in the brewery to
make it all happen apparently the
hardest part of growing the koji is
controlling the conditions and
environment one miscalculation by the
brewers could result in the kojima
growing too fast too slow or stop
growing altogether tending to the rice
is a tireless process but necessary to
handcraft the highest quality sake
possible
and this is how the brewers adjust the
koji in the trays to create the most
ideal environment for the kojima to
reproduce brewers not only shovel the
trays but also mix the piles of koji
rice itself in certain forms at
different stages of the growth like
making a dip in the center or creating
these lines
excuse me what are you doing
sure
[Music]
he also says that rice would quickly
fill with carbon dioxide and the water
content inside wouldn't evaporate evenly
so the trays allow them to finally
manage the koji growth
after almost two days of endless
adjustments the rice has fully matured
so the brewers can move it out of the
kojimuto the koji rice itself has taken
a completely new form and texture as
each single grain of rice has now been
infused with koji mold
[Music]
and look at this it's getting all den
garden up in here for the cooling down
so now that all the rice has been laid
off to cool all we have to do now is
just wait
[Music]
we're finally here i feel like we've
grown so much since the beginning of the
video well at least the koji has and now
it's time for the rice to become alcohol
i think i've been waiting my entire life
for this moment
matured rice koji water and yeast are
mixed together to produce the shubo
oh wow the brewers are using locally
sourced rocco mountain sub-soil water
with its uniquely high mineral content
in japan which helps the growth of koji
mold and yeast another reason why
brewing is so popular in this area the
water itself is a key ingredient to
creating the brewer's signature sharp
and clear sake taste
watching this entire process is really
making me want to drink right now but
cold rocks we gotta keep this video
going so the brewers use their own
special blend of yeast to produce their
highest quality hand crafted sake in
fact brewers store about 400 different
types of yeast each producing its own
distinct flavor which allows the brewers
the ability to expertly mix them in
order to develop an exact flavor
there's actually so much going on all at
the same time i'm having to run back and
forth this is getting tiring anyways
it's time to create the meromi
fermenting mash rice rice koji and water
are added three times over four days but
depending on the sake being crafted the
mash can be produced all at once or even
adding rice and water up to seven to
eight times the brewers rely heavily on
their historical data analysis to
produce a consistent sake but slight
changes in environment weather rise
quality etc must be manually accounted
for by the brewers meaning that crafting
sake is less like a static ratio of
mixed ingredients but more of a blending
of technique and ingredients to create a
consumable living piece of art
i wonder what's behind that door over
there
oh cool they have the tanks up here yup
we're in heaven storage room where all
the different stages of saki are kept
brewers regularly check each tank and
make the necessary adjustments here to
ensure that the socket is fermenting
correctly bubble bubble toil in trouble
if you serve me this sake double let's
get out of here before i find a cup so
one of the difficult things to capture
in this video is the wonderful aroma of
this sake it just smells so good in here
i wish you guys were here to smell it
all right they're getting ready right
now for the final part
[Music]
yay the dai ginjo sake is finally ready
[Music]
after almost a month of fermentation
it's filtered in the traditional
japanese method called kurotsuri
literally meaning hanging bags usually
this process is performed by machines
with pressure but for the brewers
highest quality by genjo sake they do it
all by hand taking advantage of natural
gravity to filter the sake
[Music]
damn that some smell good in the air
finally the toji the master brewer in
charge of the entire production has the
final taste
with his approval the sake is bottled up
and readied for shipping although a
massive undertaking for the team of
brewers only a thousand bottles are
handcrafted each year making it an
extremely sought after sake all around
the world
so that's how sake is handmade in japan
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