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 Keeping
to the tradition of the genuine brewing style
No short cuts are taken when it comes to the brewing of Fukugao-brand
sake… a truly thorough and detailed process adhering to traditional
methods. Only the most carefully selected raw materials are used,
with brewery workers under the Echigo Toji following the elaborate
hand-making process by sharpening their five senses and devoting
extensive time and care.
Sake brewing starts by first offering a prayer for
the safety of the brewery workers and for an optimal brewing result.
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Rice
Washing
The brewery workers all join in to spread out the sakamai (rice
used for making sake) evenly, then to deftly wash the rice with cold
water. |
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Steaming
The balance of the water content is essential when
steaming sakamai to just the right softness. The length of time
required for steaming rice is left to the judgment of the toji,
who actually holds the rice to check the fragrance, flavor and texture.
The rice, when steamed, should be soft in the inside, but firm on
the outside. The steamed sakamai must be immediately moved to the
kojimuro (cultivation room) |
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Koji-making
process performed by
hand
Koji (rice malt) greatly affects the flavor of sake.
Koji-kin (mold) is mixed into the steamed sakamai, and then is kept
under the watchful eyes of the brewers day and night to maintain
the fermentation process under a fixed temperature. Not even the
slightest change goes unobserved.
The deep snow of Niigata’s cold winter covers the kura (sake brewery)
and purifies the air, resulting in the healthy growth of koji-kin
(mold) and kobo (yeast). |
Shikomi
(fermentation)
process for making moromi
(final mash）
The mixture of kakemai (steamed rice), water, koji
and shubo（made by mixing kobo (yeast) into steamed rice）is fermented
under low temperature to produce moromi, which is the final mash.
The condition of the fermentation process up until this stage more
or less determines the flavor of sake. |
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Inspection
Inspections are repeated during each stage of the fermentation
process from the start to the end. The toji thoroughly checks the
state of sake quality during the fermentation process and evaluates
the complicated and delicate balance to determine the exact timing
of the final completion of sake. |
Drip-pressing
from Bags When making premium sake such as
Daiginjo, brewery workers pack moromi into canvas bags, and then collect
sake which drips out over time.
“Bag used in fukuro shibori (to press and squeeze out the sake)” made
from cotton.
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Tobin-gakoi
Drip pressed sake is collected and bottled into a tobin (18-liter
bottle). The lees remaining in the sake eventually settle to the bottom
of the bottle. Sake filled in tobin is called tobin-gakoi and this
is the style in which new sake is entered into the National New Sake
Contest.
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Birth
of New Sake
At birth, all sake is colored yellow gold. The translucency
gradually changes in keeping with the filtration method applied, after
which sake is bottled ready to be shipped.
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2004
Fukugao
