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Presentation: How to convey the appeal of sake to foreigners visiting Japan. John Gauntner

I. Overview: Today, the following topics will be covered - How to convey sake’s appeal in general - Important things to bear in mind when talking about sake- Challenges related to understanding sake - Why your work is important

II. Before beginning: a bit about my work

III. Overview A. Do visitors to Japan want to know about it? Yes. B. Visiting breweries is highly recommended! C. Always try to arrange a tasting, if even just a little bit.

IV. Practical Information A. The first need to determine is, how much time do you have. You have to capture and keep their interest and in order to do that you have to know how much time you have and adjust the content to that. You can capture and keep their interest in 30 seconds, five minutes, or an hour. But the depth of the content of each is different and important. B. Keep it simple at first or they will lose interest and we do not want to do that. C. Keep it logical in any event, short or long. D. I realize that sake is not always simple or logical, so you have to convey that it is vague, and that there are exceptions. E. Remember other countries may not have a rice and koji culture.

V. Problems conveying sake to non-Japanese visitors. -Language: Written and spoken -Special terminology -Lack of familiarity with what seishu is: not a wine nor a beer nor a spirit

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VI. Key concepts to learn to convey -What koji is and does! -Multiple Parallel Fermentation ( )- Three-stage brewing ( )-The appeal of the incredible “attention to detail” in sake brewing (

)

VII. Other important sake-related topics (a bit more advanced) -Regionality -The Master Brewer system (toji) -Variations (nigori, sparkling, etc)

VIII. Why this is important work Sake consumption down in Japan, now below ten percent of all alcohol. Exports are up but are still perhaps 2% of all. Sake can use all the help it can get!

The Three Minute Version1. Sake is fairly priced 90% of the time. So you can make a decision on price or budget

and be safe 90% of the time. Are there exceptions? Yes. And personal preferences change this rule too. But if you know nothing about sake, not even what you prefer, this rule works well.

2. Drink something with the word “ginjo” on the bottle. If you remember only one word about sake, let it be ginjo. Ginjo is the top 8% of all sake made. There are subclasses of ginjo, but if the word ginjo is somewhere on the bottle, you are drinking very premium sake. This does not mean that non-ginjo is bad, or that there are no other grades worth drinking. There are! But if you choose to remember only one word, let it be ginjo.

3. Drink your premium sake slightly chilled. Why? Because the flavors and aromas in premium sake are best enjoyed chilled and would be destroyed by heating. But remember, there are exceptions! There is some premium sake that is wonderful gently warmed.

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A basic 30-45 minute presentation that works well:

Sake, One to Ten

I. Basics

1. Sake is brewed – not distilled and not simply fermented – from rice, and rice alone.

2. The alcohol content is usually about 16%, watered down from the naturally occurring 20%.

II. History: How long has sake been around?

1. The short answer: about 1000 years in the form it is today.

2. The long answer: in some form, about 2000 years. But sake like today's premium "ginjo"

sake? Only about 40 years on the market.

III. Sake is fairly priced 90% of the time. What affects this parallel price/quality line?

1. Rice: Good sake rice is expensive, but worth it.

2. Milling: The more the rice is milled, the higher the quality of sake (a generalization).

3. Labor: More often than not, hand-crafted, labor-intensive techniques lead to better sake.

IV. Sake is fairly priced 90% of the time. So you can make a decision on budget and be safe. Three things

affect price, and therefore quality.

1. The quality of the rice. Just like grapes for wine, sake rice is different than eating rice. While

not all sake is made from proper sake rice, premium sake is. And sake rice is more expensive.

2. How much the rice is milled before brewing. More milling means more refined flavors and

aromas, but costs more.

3. The labor-intensive “handmade” craftsmanship. Usually better than machines, but costs more!

V. The Grades

1. Grade is legally defined by how much the rice has been milled.

2. If you remember one word, remember "ginjo."

3. There is a lot of overlap between the grades.

4. Very small amounts of added alcohol are used in making premium sake as a tool.

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VI. Aging

1. Almost all sake is not aged, but consumed young. Sake will begin to change after about a year.

2. Unlike wine, what little sake is aged is aged in varying ways, leading to varying results.

VII. Temperature

1. In short, most premium sake should be consumed slightly chilled. But there are exceptions.

2. How does one know from the bottle? That can be hard. Experience and preference are key.

3. There is a bit of warmed sake renaissance in Japan now. But we "educators" must be careful

as consumers like new information kept short, simple and sweet.

VIII. Vessels

1. Wine glasses work fine, although stemware is rarely used in Japan.

2. Traditional pottery adds a tactile and visual appeal, on top of the structural reasons.

IX. Storage

1. Keep sake cool and out of strong light. It does not need to be refrigerated unless it is

namazake (unpasteurized sake). However, colder temperatures will retard aging.

2. Once a bottle is open, the safest thing is to treat it like a bottle of wine, but in truth some sake

last longer than others, and generally sake is more forgiving than wine.

X. Food and Sake

1. With a few exceptions like particularly strong flavors and spicy food, sake works well with a

surprisingly wide range of food.

2. The principles are the same as those for food and wine: matches hinge on either similarities or

contrasts in aspects like acidity, texture, weight, flavor content and aroma content. Fruit, herbs,

grains and a whole host of other natural flavors are present in today's sake. There is plenty with

which to work.

Copyright © John Gauntner 2012

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The Sake Brewing Process, Illustrated

1. Rice is harvested in the fall.

2. The rice is milled to remove anywhere from (typically) 30% to 65% of the outer portion using modern milling machines like those shown below.

3. After being allowed to sit about two weeks (typically) to re-absorb moisture, the rice is ready for use. The next step now is to wash it to remove the powder that clings to the grains from milling, and then soak it to get it to about 30% water content. This is a deceivingly important step, and is often done by hand in small batches (like 10 kg).

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4. Next, the rice is steamed. A modern steamer is shown at left, in the middle is a traditional way of heating the water for steaming in a traditional vat, and at right is a conveyor belt steamer.

5. Then cooled…either by machine or by spreading it out on mats.

6. Initially, some of it is taken to have koji mold sprinkled on to it and be made into koji. This is done to about 15% of the total amount of rice going into a batch, and done in a room called the koji muro.

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7. After cooling down a bit, koji mold is sprinkled on the rice. It is then bundled up to keep warm (for now), but later will be spread out, the grains will be broken up so they don’t stick together, and put into little trays to ensure uniformity of temperature and moisture. There are also machines that are used for this process. Completed koji is spread out to cool and dry out further until the tank is ready for it.

8. Next (above), the yeast starter (moto, or shubo) is created in a small tank like above. It starts as a mixture of water, koji, rice and yeast, and takes about two weeks until it is ready.

9. After there is a sufficiently high concentration of yeast cells, more water, koji and rice are added three times over four days as the mash is moved to a large tank. Note that for each of these additions, koji must be made anew, and straight rice (i.e not made into koji) must be prepared anew as well. For premium sake the rice is moved by hand, but for cheaper sake, it is blown through hoses to get to the tank.

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10. After 20 to 40 days of vigilant temperature and parameter control, the sake is ready to be pressed, i.e. the mash run through a mesh to leave the dregs behind and pull the good stuff out. Perhaps 99 percent of all sake is pressed using a machine called an assaku-ki, shown at left. Better sake is pressed by pouring the mash into long bags and squeezing these out of a large box. But even more extravagant is to let those bags just hang, and have the sake drip out, with no pressure whatsoever applied.

11. At this point it is basically sake, and all that remains is for it to be allowed to mature, cut with water (usually), pasteurized and/or micro-filtered, and bottled, although these procedures are not necessarily performed in any given order. It all depends on the sake, the brewer, and the objectives. However, the importance and leverage of any one of these steps – pasteurization, filtering, storage for maturation, bottling, or adding water – should never be underestimated!

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An extension of ginjo-shu below in that it is brewed using even more painstaking, labor intensive methods. The pinnacle of the sake brewer’s art. Generally light, complex, and fragrant.

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A subclass of daiginjo described at left, in which, like junmai-shu below, only rice, water and koji have been used.

At least 50% -50% milled away, often as much as 65% removed

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Brewed with labor intensive steps, eschewing machinery, and fermented at colder temperatures for longer periods. Flavor is light and delicate, often with fruity or flowery touches to the flavor and fragrance.

�����

A subclass of ginjo described at left, in which, like junmai-shu below, only rice, water and koji have been used.

At least 60%- 40% or more milled away

Increasing quality, price, fragrance and complexity. “P

remium

Sake.”

���Brewed using a very small amount of pure distilled alcohol. Lighter and often more fragrant than Junmai-shu.

(Note also Tokubetsu Honjozo, or "Special" Honjozo, a vague definition indicating Honjozo-shu made with either special rice or more highly milled rice.)

��� Made with nothing but rice, water and koji mold. Usually a bit fuller than other types, often with a good acidity.

(Note also Tokubetsu Junmai, or "Special" Junmai, a vague definition indicating Junmai-shu made with either special rice or more highly milled rice.)

At least 70%- 30% or more milled away, [for junmai- shu only, any milling rate is OK, but it must be listed]

Norm

al “Table” Sake

Sake above this line is collectively referred to as “tokutei meishoushu” ������or “special designation sake,” and can be considered “premium sake,” but constitutes only about 20% of the entire market, with sake below this line, “futsu-shu” or “normal

sake” constituting the remaining 80% or so.

�� ( Normal Sake : “Table Sake”)

No M

inimum

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equirements

- Confusing though it may be, the top four grades are collectively referred to as “ginjo-shu.”- Pure, distilled alcohol is added in copious amounts to cheap sake to increase yields. However, in the

brewing of premium sake it is used in very small amounts to enhance the fragrance and flavor. - Keep in mind that very often the differences between the sake of these various grades is subtle. -Namazake (��) is un-pasteurized sake, Note that this term may apply to any of the above. Namazake

is generally fresher and more fragrant than pasteurized sake. - Sake is generally not aged, although there are exceptions, especially lately. - Generally the more the rice has been milled, the cleaner, lighter and more delicate the flavor. - There are many other, less important terms related to sake that have been omitted for simplicity. - Junmai-shu may now be made with any milling rate, but it must be listed on the label.

Copyright © John Gauntner, 2008

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http://www.kamon.ne.jp/~yamamizu/

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http://www.satake-japan.co.jp/

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の「佐陀神能（さだしんのう）」と広島県北広島町の「壬生（みぶ）の花田植（はなたう

え）」が登録されることが、２０１１年月１１日２７日に決まりました。

（１）佐陀神能（さだしんのう）

松江市の佐太神社で、古代神話を題材にした演目の多い神楽です。 「御座替神事」にあ

わせて奉納される「七座神事」「式三番」「神能」の三つの神事舞を総称して佐陀神能と

呼ばれます。祭典後の法楽として奉納される祝言の「式三番」と着面の神話劇「神能」は

１７世紀の頃、直面の執物舞である「七座」はそれ以前の昔からとその歴史は大変古く、

各地に伝わる里神楽にも大きな影響を与え、「出雲流神楽の源流」とも称されます。神社

の祭事に能形式の神楽を奉納するのは、全国的にも類を見ないものです。

江戸初期に佐太神社の神職が京に上り、当時流行していた猿楽や幸若舞（こうわかまい）

から創作したものと伝えられています。

（２）壬生の花田植（みぶのはなたうえ）

広島県北広島町で、毎年６月の第１日曜日に豊作を願って行われる伝統行事です。西日

本には鎌倉時代の頃より、田植えの際には音頭取りが打ち合わせる「ささら」の拍子にあ

わせ、大太鼓や小太鼓、笛や手打鉦で囃し、早乙女が田植歌を歌いながら植えていくとい

う風習がありました。サンバイ（田の神）を祭って無病息災と豊穣を願う農耕儀礼である

とともに、苦しい田植作業を楽しくこなすための工夫でもありました。きらびやかな装具

をつけた飾り牛、絣の着物に菅笠をかぶった早乙女、見事なバチさばきを見せる囃子手等、

そのいずれもが、新緑の山、田んぼの水面にマッチし、初夏の一大絵巻となっています。

田植え歌の一節には、

「音戸の瀬戸でまた清盛公はの 日の丸の扇で御日を招き戻した」もあります。

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参考文献・ウェブサイト：

朝日新聞 http://www.asahi.com/tool/

経済産業省http://www.meti.go.jp/press/20071130005/list.pdf

熊谷家住宅 http://kumagai.city.ohda.lg.jp/

マツダミュージアムhttp://www.mazda.co.jp/philosophy/museum/

大和ミュージアム http://www.yamato-museum.com/

佐太神社 http://sadajinjya.jp/

北広島町観光サイト http://www.kitahiro.jp/

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