THE 10 MAIN STEPS OF SAKE MAKING AT MAKINO BREWERY

dragonlife

10 months ago

THE 10 MAIN STEPS OF SAKE MAKING AS ILLUSTRATED BY ANTIQUE STATUES AT MAKINO BREWERY, FUJINOMIYA CITY!

THE 10 MAIN STEPS OF SAKE MAKING

The other day when visiting Makino Brewery in Fujinomiya City, I had the great pleasure to discover these antique statues/figurines depicting the 10 main steps of old-fashioned/traditional sake making!

I just could not resist sharing the fun!

Here we go!

Milling-polishing/精米 (seimai)

The rice has to be polished to a certain amount to get nearer to the proteins in its core depending on the quality of the sake.

Soaking/水汲み (mizukumi)

The rice has to be soaked for easier washing and steaming.

Rice washing/米洗い (komearai)

Rice steaming/米むし (komemushi)

Cooling/放冷 (hourei)

The steamed rice had first to be cooled down in different manners according to the brewery’s traditions, brewer’s skills and the sake status.

Making of the kouji-malt/麹造り (Kouji tsukuri)

Once the steamed rice has been properly cooled down it is sprinkled with dry noble mold to turn the rice proteins into sugar before proper fermenting.

Stirring the fermentation starter/酛摺り (moto suri)

The kouji-malt has been added with yeast and water and more rice to become the fermentation starter and has to be regularly stirred to help the fermentation.