Earlier this week we began brewing our 17th batch during ideal sake-brewing weather.
This is our first batch led by Greg Newton. Our founding/consulting master brewer Yoshiko Takahashi recently returned to Japan, having fulfilled her mission of getting us started on the road to brewing delicious sake, and will continue to be our technical consultant on issues as they arise along our brewing journey. The brewing routines started by Takahashi-toji are being continued by Greg-san, who worked in our brewery together with Takahashi-toji as her disciple for the last several months and who used to work at the same brewery in Nagano (Tomono Shuzo) where Takahashi-san was formerly master brewer. Greg is a microbioligist by training (graduate of University of Guelph, post-graduate researcher at University of Tokyo) who is passionate about sake, which he began seriously studying in 2008 through a training internship at Daimon Shuzo, an international-minded brewery in Osaka whose 6th-generation owner Yasutaka Daimon has embraced the potential of sake markets and production outside of Japan.
We look forward to tasting this batch next month. In the meantime, we have started to blend sakes using the excellent cold weather-brewed 14th, 15th and 16th batches which were pressed in December. These are all full-flavoured, and in the cases of #14 and #15, high-alcohol sakes, which are delicious both on their own as well as in blends such as the current rendition of Genshu in which #14 is prominent. Please drop by the brewery for a visit, or sign up for a Brewery Tasting Tour if you have an hour to spend learning a bit about the methods and flavours of the sake world!