Pre-issue #4 - Gekkeikan Alcohol free Daiginjō, Yamagata lucky sake, Yamaguchi sake sales, Tanaka Shuzō extreme milling, Nihonshu-do

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Sep 15, 2019

Gekkeikan releases alcohol-free daiginjō style sake

Kyoto brewery Gekkeikan has announced a new foray into the sake market with a sugar-free, non-alcoholic daiginjō style sake. While this is not their first non-alcoholic sake (they released Gekkeikan-Free in 2014), it is their first attempt at trying to capture the taste of ginjō-style sake in an alcohol-free format. The press release states, "The addition of amino acids gives the sake a sweet and umami richness".

Given Japan's stringent drink-driving laws, non-alcoholic versions of popular drinks are quite common and enjoy a fair share of the beverage market. It will be interesting to see if Gekkeikan Special Free finds its place in the consumer psyche. Gekkeikan Special Free is available in 245ml bottles nationwide from August 26th for with a RRP of JPY 390.

Yamagata breweries on road to recovery with 'lucky' sake

Following the devastating earthquake that shook Yamagata prefecture in June, two breweries from Tsuruoka City have banded together in a unique project to show appreciation to their supporters and also salvage sake damaged in the disaster.

Labeled as Lucky Bottle Mokkedano Tsuruoka, (Mokkedano meaning"thank you" in the local Shōnai dialect) the special release sake is a blend of various sake from Watarai and Dewa No Yuki (Watanabe Honten) or Uzenshiraume (Haneda Shuzō) that had yet to be labeled when the earthquake hit.

With the bottled contents unidentifiable and subsequently unsellable under their respective grades, the breweries decided to release the 208 bottles as a 'lucky dip' where consumers will not know the contents of the bottle they are buying. Bottles could contain any of five different sake ranging from tokubetsu junmai, ginjō, junmai daiginjō or daiginjō.

These limited edition special release sake will be retailing for JPY3000 plus tax.

Sake sales from Yamaguchi on the rise for the 12th year running

The Yamaguchi Sake Breweries Association has announced shipments of local sake increased by 5.6% to 8,573 kiloliters for 2018 BY (July 2018-June 2019), marking a continued increase for 12 years in a row. Interestingly, local shipments within Yamaguchi prefecture decreased by 7.3%. This year also, marks the first drop in domestic shipments outside Yamaguchi in 11 years with a decrease of 1.9%.

Despite these downturns, overseas exports saw a rise of 64.1% to 1749 kiloliters to influence an overall increase of shipments. Recently, local brands such as Dassai (Asahi Shuzō) and Toyo Bijin (Sumikawa Shuzō) have enjoyed an ever-rising popularity among overseas markets, no doubt assisting the rise in foreign exports.

Source - Nikkei | Image Japan Travel

New extreme milling releases from Tanaka Shuzō

Hyogo brewery Tanaka Shuzō, have announced this year's release of two of their sake using extreme rice milling - Kame No Kōmade with Kame No O milled to 7% and Enmusubi, made with Yamada Nishiki milled to 17%. Due to difficulties with the water absorption of this year's crop, they let the rice sit for two months following harvest before spending 180 hours painstakingly milling the rice to the desired ratio.

Tanaka Shuzō CEO Yasuhiro Tanaka describes the sake as,"light at the front but withtime will develop rich undertones that go well with food." Bottled in 720ml servings, Kame No Kōwill retail for JPY 21,600 while Enmusubi will retail for JPY 20,700.

Source + Image Mainichi

N.B. While there are many who say that milling beyond 35% has little meaning, and that more milling is not necessarily better, it is always interesting to hear about and also try these products. So much has to be done differently when the rice has been milled this far that it really displays great technical prowess. In total, there are perhaps half a dozen other products on the market made with rice milled to anywhere between 18% and 7%, plus of course the famous 1% and 0% products as well. For further reading click here.
John Gauntner

Support service offering assistance to breweries doing it tough

In a true sign of the times, retail sake company Mirai Saketen (Tokyo) has announced the formation of a "match-making" service for struggling sake breweries seeking support. Mirai Saketen began the initiative in July as a response to the growing number of sake breweries facing financial difficulties and, in extreme cases, the possibility of closure.

Mirai Saketen Kichijoji

Mirai Saketen Ebisu

As well as helping breweries financially by matching them with potential investors, they will also assist breweries with no familial successors that have been forced to seek outside entities to take over their business. Mirai Saketen will also support the breweries that utilize these services in their retail stores located around Tokyo by stocking and promoting their sake.

Source Jiji | Images Mirai Saketen

N.B. This is an interesting development that will both help struggling small kura to survive, and bring more hitherto undiscovered sake to Tokyo. It also shows changes in the economics of the sake world, in that so many more than in the past are open tooutside investment. This will be a continuing discussion in this newsletter and in the industry overall.
John Gauntner

Nihonshu-do, residual Sugar, and contest Sake

By John Gauntner

Sake Industry News readers will be familiar with the nihonshu-do or SMV (sake meter value), often found on sake labels or in marketing information. Usually, an integer somewhere between -3 and +12; it is a very vague (read: almost meaningless) indication of sweet and dry. Neutral is indicated at about +3 and from there, the higher the reading, the drier the sake. But because so many things affect the perception of sweet and dry, the nihonshu-do alone does not really tell us much, even though we see it a lot.

Technically, what the nihonshu-do actually indicates is the specific gravity. In other words, the density of the sake compared to that of pure water. What it does not indicate is the residual sugar, i.e. the amount of sugar left in the sake at bottling time. It is used during the brewing process to show when the amount of sugar is increasing (as the kōji works to create it) and then decreasing (when the yeast ferments that sugar). The changes show how fast the amount of sugar is increasing or decreasing - which is important, but it doesn't show the actual amount of sugar.

For wine, we often hear about the residual sugar. But no such measurement is made for sake. Why not?

Simply, because it does not really tell us anything. Remember that with wine, you start with a certain amount of sugar, and you do not get to make any more along the way. What is left after fermentation tells you how much was fermented into alcohol and how much remains. But with sake, you make the sugar as you go along, by letting the kōji create enzymes to saccharify the starch. So how much remains is only relevant when compared to how much you started with. How much was fermented off is much more important than what remains.

Also, remember that sake is not a complete fermentation. They are not trying to ferment all of the sugar, so that what remains is not as significant as it might be if getting as close to total fermentation was a goal.

So, the nihonshu-do is not the residual sugar, and the latter tells us even less than the former. Does this mean that the residual sugar is never measured for sake? Of course not. Never say 'never' in the sake world.

Lately, there are more and more brewers that do use this metric while making some of their sake, although to my knowledge the number is never released or published. Why, then do they use it?

To mask bitterness in highly aromatic, modern sake.

The “modern yeasts” as I like to call them, known to the brewing-geeks as “cerulenin resistant yeasts” (because they are resistant to cerulenin, an antibiotic antifungal that inhibits fatty acid production), are the yeasts that lead to aromas of apple, tropical fruit, and anise.

These aromas are the result of the presence of an ester called ethyl caproate. But anytime ethyl caproate is produced, its chemical cousin caperatic acid is also unavoidably produced. And caperatic acid makes sake taste bitter. So, sake with apple and anise aromas will have bitterness in the background of the flavor - at least to some degree. Just how much, of course, depends on many factors in the brewing process.

What some will do (especially for contest sake) is increase the amount of sugar that remains just as the brewing process ends, and let that balance the bitterness. This leads to pleasant aromas without background bitterness.

While doing this right is easier said than done, if pulled off correctly it canbe achieved. This process is a major hassle, so most brewers do not bother for market sake, but rather only for top class ginjōand daiginjō- especially sake destined for the National Tasting Competition and other such high-level technical contests.

Curiously, brewers are also permitted to use straight enzymes added to the moromi - rather than enzymes created by the kōji alone. This lets them dose the moromi at the end, and get precise amounts of sugar at precise points in time. There is less risk, hassle and complexity than using proper kōji near the end of the fermentation period. Note, enzymes are not listed in the permitted ingredients, nor the list of ingredients on the label. I think, but do not know, this is because the amount used is so small that they are not required to list it. But I am not sure.

Also, there are brewers that consider this practice somewhat unsavory, and swear they will never do it. Others are not the least bit shy about it. And in the end, if the sake is enjoyable, who are we to judge?

Sake Industry News