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As autumn begins, each sake brewery releases its hiyaoroshi sake. Hiyahoroshi is a sake that can only be drunk in autumn. This is because the change of the season has a great deal to do with the sake's completion. Sake made in early spring is fired and stored in a cool warehouse during the hot summer months, and when the temperature drops in September, the sake is unloaded at about the same temperature as outside, resulting in hiyaoroshi with a mild aroma and mellow flavor. 

Today’s Topic

Have you all noticed the playful new pages in SAKURATOWN?

 Scroll down and you can see the whole process of sake brewing from the very beginning of rice production to the final shipment of sake to you.
Isn't it cute? Actually, the illustration is different when viewed on a smartphone than when viewed on a computer!

It is no surprise that sake is great tasting, but sake is also unique in the way it is produced. Sake, like wine and beer, is classified as a brewed alcoholic beverage, and different fermentation methods are used for different brews.

simple-fermentation

Monofermentation does not require saccharification of starch materials because it uses raw materials such as fruits that originally contain sugar. Simply by adding yeast to the sugar-containing raw materials, the yeast can break down the sugar into alcohol. For example, "wine," which is made from grapes containing high sugar content, is a well-known mono-fermented alcoholic beverage. Other mono-fermented liquors include fruit wine, milk wine made from animal milk, and sap wine.

single-row double fermentation

Unlike simple fermentation, in single-row double fermentation, the starch of the raw material is broken down into sugars, yeast is added, and alcoholic fermentation takes place. Beer is a typical alcoholic beverage of the single-row double fermentation process. Wheat, the raw material for beer, does not contain sufficient sugar, so the starch is saccharified by enzymes contained in malt. This saccharified starch is called "wort," and fermentation of the wort produces beer.

This fermentation method requires two processes, "saccharification" and "fermentation," which is why it is called "single-row double fermentation.

parallel-simultaneous fermentation

Parallel Double Fermentation is a slightly more complicated and time-consuming fermentation method that differs from simple fermentation sake and single row double fermentation sake. Sake is a typical example of parallel double fermentation sake. Since the rice used to make sake does not contain sufficient sugar, saccharification is required to break down the starch in the rice to produce sugar, as in the single-batch fermentation process.

 Parallel Double Fermentation differs from Single Double Fermentation in that the two processes of "saccharification" and "fermentation" can be carried out simultaneously in a single container. It is called parallel double fermentation because it is a fermentation method in which the process of decomposing starch into sugar using koji and the process of decomposing sugar and alcoholic fermentation by yeast proceed in parallel at the same time.

 Furthermore, a major feature of parallel double fermentation is that it can produce alcohol with a high concentration of nearly 20 degrees Celsius. Since yeast acts simultaneously on the glucose saccharified by koji to immediately break down the sugar and ferment it into alcohol, the alcohol content can be efficiently increased.

 Finally

Thus, even within the same brew, there are significant differences in the way sake is made. In particular, the brewing process for sake is more complex than that for wine or beer, and requires a more labor-intensive brewing process.

Did you know that sake brewing is done carefully throughout the year in this way?
We feel that sake still has a lot of potential, and we hope that more and more people will become interested in sake. We would like everyone to become more interested in sake and to know and love not only the taste, but also the entire process of making sake.

We will continue to maintain this site so that as many people as possible can learn about the brewers who put their heart and soul into their work from early in the morning every day without cutting corners.

See you again in the next blog!!