Kai-ire

Kai-ire is an important task of sake brewing. It helps the flowing of contents in the barrel, and keeps the Sake Moromi (main mash) healthy.

I did Kai-ire for our swimming pool. It keeps the pool clean.

Learning about Sake

The Book of Sake : A Connoisseur's Guide (Philip Harper) is a perfect book for studying Sake in English. I'm using this book for my study - it is also useful to know how I can explain about Sake in English.

Philip Harper and Yoshito Kinoshita (Kinoshita-shuzo CEO)

Philip Harper is the master brewer at Kinoshita-shuzo. He shared his ideas and passion about Sake Brewing with us in our "Sakagura Tour, March 2012".

What is Junmai

There are 3 different types of sake, based on the ingredients.

(1) 純米 (Junmai) : rice, koji (moulding rice), water
(2) 本醸造 (Hon-jozo) : rice, koji, water, spirits
(3) 普通酒 (normal sake) : rice, koji, water, spirits, sugars and acids

So, Junmai is made from rice (and water). Junmai means 100% rice.

Junmai is the original style of sake. Normal sake are from 1930s. Hon-jozo is from 1970s. However, Junmai makes up only 10% of the total production.

At Sakenet Australia we only stock Junmai. We believe Junmai is the best and we also want to support the breweries that produce fine Junmai Sake. We will discuss this point further in coming posts...

Sakenet Australia Facebook Page

We created our facebook page, Sakenet Australia.
http://facebook.com/sakenet

Please check it out!

Sakagura Tour March 2012 (report)

Our first Sakagura Tour was held on 12th - 19th March 2012. Sakenet Australia selected 4 breweries.

Kubo-honke Shuzo (Suiryu) in Nara prefecture

Taketsuru Shuzo (Taketsuru) in Hiroshima prefecture

Ohta Shuzo (Benten Musume) in Tottori prefecture

Kinoshita Shuzo (Tamagawa) in Kyoto prefecture

There was a tour of inspection at each brewery and we learned about sake brewing.

After the inspection was sake tasting.

We tried various sakes at dinner too. After the inspection and the tasting, everyone became a sake expert!

Of course, the food was super beautiful. Seasonal, fresh, local, well cooked.

Small trains run through the beauty of nature, taking us to the historical small towns where the breweries are.

We would like to thank those who joined us on the tour and the staff at all the breweries for making this a memorable experience.

- photos, words by Taka (one of the guides in this trip) -

Mino Mosman & the long awaited departure date for the Sakagura Tour

Apologies for the reporting on this so late the past week has been flat out with the lead up to the Sakagura tour - the long awaited departure date finally dawning on us tomorrow morning!! I hope everyone is just as excited as I am to learn, see, taste and smell from some of the best Sake brewers in the world - so watch this space for reviews and photos of the tour!!

We had an informal gathering/meeting last Friday at Mino Japanese Restaurant in Mosman to meet all the participants (Anne, Joseph, Robin and Simon) and to explain a little more in detail how the tour will fold out. We all got the chance to sample some beautifully prepared Japanese cuisine paired with Sake as a little taster to what will await them in Japan. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the tour and consequently got seduced by the excitement and anticipation that was in the air and drank a little bit too much (woops...). Looking forward to everyone's stories when they arrive back.

Some Like It Hot

It's been a while since I've posted, we're finally seeing some hopeful rays of sun and the heat is somewhat summer-esque. It's these lovely Australian summery afternoon where a nice cold beer would really hit the spot but I've opted for my version of a "coldy" - a cold, cloudy, sparkling sake by Shinkame called Karuku Ippai which translates as "a light one", which is a different meaning from the perceived image of "light beer" where light = weak (not for the tough). No, this is light as in refreshing. Anyway enough of the language lesson this is a drink that I think would go wonderfully with some good old pub fare like salt & pepper squid - hmmm must remember this for next time.

By the way just as an F.Y.I we've been making some improvements on our website aiming towards a more user friendly version. Always appreciate any feedback you can give us on how we can make things better for you so let me know what you think!!

Until next time!!