*Click here for the update on English-Japanese bilingual content!*
*英日バイリンガルブログについてのお知らせはここをクッリクしてください*
Recently had the opportunity to attend an exclusive brewery tour at Aoki Sake Brewery (http://aokishuzou.co.jp/), a small Brewery in Ibaraki Prefecture about an hour away from Tokyo. Ms. Chisa Aoki, the 9th generation family member continuing the brewery business gave us a tour of the premises and brewery process. (FYI, the Japan Sake and Sochu Makers Association have a great step-by-step explanation of the basic sake brewing process.) It was fascinating to see the actual process from start with milling and steaming the rice to finish with bottling!
<Check out photos and captions below!>
| *~* Did you know? *~* The word ‘sake’ (or ‘o-sake’ with an honorific) in Japanese actually refers to all alcoholic drinks. Japanese-style sake is specifically called “Nihon shu” (literally, Japanese liquor). If you simply order “sake” at a restaurant in Japan, some traditional places may provide you their whole alcohol list rather than the Japanese-style sake you had in mind! ^^ |
茨城県の青木酒造株式会社に行きました。
「SAKE」として世界で親しまれている日本酒が最近人気が上がってますね。最近、青木酒造酒蔵見学（http://aokishuzou.co.jp/）に行ってきました。茨城県の小さな酒造店で造られ、何度も世界の賞を受賞したかた製造現場を見学ツアーに行きました。東京駅から１時間ぐらいですので、日帰りで行けます！
お酒が造られる流れに沿った順番で、酒蔵内も見学しました。玄米と精米後のそれぞれの酒米を実際に見ながら、酒造好適米で使っている酒米の説明を聞くことができる。
Rice on the drying rack used for Junmai Daininjyo (highest grade) Japanese sake
Ms. Chisa Aoki, the 9th generation family member continuing the brewery business, gave us a tour of the brewery process.
お酒造りの一般的な工程は、「精米」「洗米」「蒸米」を経て「麹造り」「酒母（もと）造り」へと進みます。さらに「仕込み」「もろみ造り」を経て、1カ月ほど「発酵」させて完成した「もろみ」を搾れば、新酒の出来上がりです
You can see the fermenting sake bubbling in the vats!
In front of the storage containers used for storing sake before bottling
＊DID YOU KNOW? ご存知でしょうか？*
After sake bottles are washed with water, they are rinsed out using high grade sake before the final bottling!
お酒の瓶は何回もお水で洗った後に、最後は高級酒を使って同じ瓶を洗います！
The tour ended with sake tasting, where we tasted fresh sake as well as bottles that won competitions last year~ Although a small brewery, Aoki Sake won in the Junmai Ginjo category at the International Wine Competition and was scored 90 points by Robert Parker! The brewery was very generous and essentially let us help ourselves to the bottles offered for tastings 😉
見学後の楽しみといえば、なんといってもお酒の試飲タイムですよね！自分で自由に飲めるスタイルですよ！スタッフにも解説してもらいながら一杯ずつ飲み比べができました。ロンドンでのＩＷＣ（インターナショナル・ワイン・チャレンジ）純米吟醸の部グランプリ受賞もこのようにして試しました。
To finish off the tour, you get a tasting of the sake made by the brewery! I liked “Shibori-state” (second from left) the best.
There are over 1500 sake breweries in Japan. Many now offer brewery tours available to the general public, but most are still closed off and available only if you have a personal connection. (In our case, we were accompanied by an excellent Japanese sake sommelier who has personally visited almost all 1500 breweries in Japan!) Really hope to have the opportunity to visit more sake breweries in the future!
半日の酒蔵ツアーが楽しかったです！そして、青木酒造のお酒は美味しかった～ 見学できる蔵をたずねて、伝統の酒造り文化を体感してできてよかったです！現在、国内には日本酒を造る酒蔵が1,500以上あるといわれています。色んな酒蔵見学ツアーにもたくさん行きたいと思います～
