Hanatomoe
Nara, Japan
Yoshino, where the brewery is located, is known as thousands of Sakura trees and Yoshino cedars. While many breweries today prefer to ferment their sake in stainless steel tanks, this brewery is taking on the challenge of brewing sake in wooden tanks made of Yoshino cedar, said to be the best cedar in Japan. Fermentation in cedar tanks is unstable and difficult, but it gives the sake more depth in the taste. He is currently working with lumberjacks to challenge sustainable forestry in the region. And when we spoke with Tomoaki, the president of the company, we were surprised to learn that he does almost all the work himself, from the beginning to the end of the sake brewing process. He says, “I respect each farmer’s way of growing rice. So I try to understand the uniqueness of each rice.
Their traditional method is revived by the last master brewer. He discovered an ancient document about Bodaimoto, and after years of research, he created his way of Bodaimoto – which only few sake brewery does. While most sake is made with artificial lactic acid to make it faster and to reduce risk, they collect yeast naturally present in the brewery. “When I came back from Tokyo and took over this brewery, the nine of us were young, in our twenties. So I decided to create a new style that would reach our generation.” In fact, in Japan over the past few decades, the image of sake has been more of something for old people to drink and get drunk.
Surprisingly, they did not make fusions or fake new sake, but went completely back to the classics and manuals to create actually hip sake. Also unusual is the fact that their master brewer is his sister -a young lady, and which is one of the reasons why their sake seems so round and soft.
