A Visit to Shinkame Sake Brewery

Ogawahara Yoshimasa (center), managing director of Shinkame Brewery, with his workers. Many of them are young.

One sip and you will never forget the taste—dry, yet rich and mellow in character. Warm it up to savor the full-bodied texture, enticing flavor and fine acidic balance. It goes well with any meal.

Shinkame Brewery’s managing director, Ogawahara Yoshimasa, is respected by sake connoisseurs. His ancestors began brewing sake centuries ago—he is the seventh-generation owner—and he studied brewing techniques at university, too. He selects the best rice and follows traditional, tried-and-true methods to make the koji mold. There is another reason for his pure, great tasting sake: the long maturing process. Most breweries ship their product after aging it for six months to a year. “Most of ours ages for more than two years. That makes it richer, and gives it a full-bodied taste.”

Ogawahara’s keen desire for excellence is shared by his master brewer and eight workers. Inside the brewery there is a tension, a strong sense of dedication at every step of the manufacture of this living beverage. They work for half a year, from October to March, often sleeping at the brewery, rarely taking a holiday.

They start with the rice, polishing, washing, soaking and then steaming it. They also cultivate a koji mold, and prepare a moromi mash. When the mash is ready, they press it to obtain the liquid alcohol. This is then filtered, pasteurized and bottled.

The process is long and stretches into the coldest time of the year. When it is cool, unwanted bacteria cannot reproduce easily, and fermentation occurs slowly, making for a better-tasting sake.

It is almost four o’clock in the morning and the city is still asleep. Inside the brewery, a single light shows a white vapor rising from the large vats. Yesterday the rice was being soaked. Now the next batch of sake is on its way.