03 — Craft & Table
Craft
Rich and dry, through complete fermentation
Rich & Dry
Complete Fermentation
Full-flavoured,
yet never cloying.
Ferment completely and nothing harsh remains. The alcohol runs a little higher, and the sake gains body and a clean finish at the same time.
Analysis shows Hakurosuishu is rich in the savoury amino acids alanine and glutamine, the sugar panose and the peptide ornithine, while bitter aspartic acid and arginine stay low. It is sake made to drink with food.
Process
Five steps, without shortcuts.
Rice preparation
Each batch comes from known growers, so drying, polishing, washing, soaking and steaming are tuned by precise measurement.
Koji in small trays
From competition sake to our regular Tokusen, all koji is made in small one-sho trays (koji-buta) — and every brewer does this work.
24-hour koji watch
The koji is watched around the clock in shifts. Only koji this potent, earned through teamwork, allows complete fermentation.
Complete fermentation
The yeast works until no sugar remains. Nothing harsh is left behind, and the sake gains body and a clean finish at once. Our house yeast is the Dewa Sanzan sacred-sake yeast.
Racking & pasteurising
Within seven days of pressing, the clear sake is racked in the midwinter cold, then pasteurised bottle by bottle in hot water and chilled — or pasteurised in chilled tanks.
The Brewers
Every brewer
lives on this land.
All our brewers commute from nearby and eat three meals a day at home — a local life, kept intact. Farmers become brewers in winter and brew the rice they grew. Understanding between paddy and brewery becomes the quality of the sake.
At the Table
For everyday meals
of local food at home.
Tsuruoka is Japan’s only UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy (2014). Hakurosuishu, born of contoured soft water and complete fermentation, resonates with the Shonai table — above all, the white fish of the Sea of Japan.
Flounder, sea bream, sea bass
Our favourite pairing. Clarity that respects delicate fish, and a structure that cuts through richness.
Kandara-jiru (winter cod soup)
The Sea of Japan in winter. Hakurosuishu has the body to stand up to miso.
Heirloom vegetables
Fujisawa turnip, Tonouchijima cucumber, Mindenasu aubergine. Kairyo Shinko sake especially lifts their sweetness.
Dashi & moso-jiru
Yamagata’s summer “dashi” relish and spring bamboo-shoot soup meet a soft, gentle finish.