Can you eat natto? What the brewers prepare for the sake brewing season

As rice harvesting becomes a topic of conversation here and there, preparations for the sake brewing process begin.

"Kurairi" is when a brewer comes to a sake brewery to make sake. The day when the toji and kurabito finally start brewing sake is called “zukuri hajime”.

It's also the season when you ask someone else's sake brewery, "What day did you start making?" Some breweries start making sake in November, while others start making it in October. It seems that some breweries say, “I will start in September,” or “It started in the middle of August.” It is no longer uncommon for breweries to improve their facilities to deliver freshly squeezed sake, and to work on three-season brewing and four-season brewing.

At Sanki Jozo and Shiki Jozo, where sake is brewed regardless of the season, sake brewers are employed year-round. However, not all breweries have brewers who work on sake brewing throughout the year. Seasonally employed brewers are still alive and well.

Once upon a time, it was common to see toji (master brewers) from the countryside coming to breweries with brewers. Originally, sake brewing was a winter job for rice farmers. Migrant workers from rural areas gathered to learn sake brewing techniques and demonstrated their skills at sake breweries all over Japan. Toji groups such as Nanbu Toji and Noto Toji, who are still famous today, were born in this way. Kanzukuri sake brewing would have been perfect as a job from harvesting rice in autumn to planting rice in spring.

Prepare Before Entering the Warehouse

Well, there are a lot of preparations to be made before entering the warehouse.

First, I'm going to buy some clothes. In addition to boots, trousers, coveralls, pants, and shirts, it's a good idea to buy cold weather gear. Working in the cold season cools you down to the core, but on the other hand, you will need to change your shirt frequently, as you will be sweating profusely.

If you are in charge of koji, you will be working in a koji room that can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, so you will sweat many times more than that. However, at this time of year, only autumn/winter clothes are sold, and summer T-shirts are not available. So it's best to stock up on cool, quick-drying shirts before the season changes.

In addition, there are many brewers who keep their hair short so that they don't get their hair mixed in. Keep your beard and nails clean.

When I arrived at the warehouse, I started by cleaning my post. In the spring, the sake brewing equipment is checked, sterilized by boiling, the floors and walls are wiped clean, and alcohol and ozone are used to sterilize the inside of the brewery to a neutral state. Once construction begins, there will be parts that you will be too busy to handle, so you have to clean them as carefully as possible at this stage.

Sometimes people ask me, "Will sterilizing the tools kill the bacteria in the brewery?" However, in modern sake brewing, such as the one my brewery is working on, the strain attached to the brewery is not very important. As for yeast, the basics of safe brewing is to use purely cultured yeast instead of brewed yeast. Still, it is a common theory that the individuality of each brewery, called Kuraguse, is due to the bacteria that live with the brewery.

I don't know how much it contributes to sake brewing, but there are many things that remain persistent, and it seems that they are in places that can't be reached by regular cleaning, such as the back of the amulet on the Shinto altar.

When the chief brewer begins to make a schedule for washing rice, which is one of the production plans, the arrival of rice begins.

Sake rice is often traded at 15,000 to 18,000 yen per bale (60kg). The price of Yamada Nishiki rice from Hyogo Prefecture can be as high as 40,000 yen per bag. In sake brewing, this rice must be further polished. For example, if the rice is 50% polished, the amount of brown rice you buy will be half, and the rest will be rice bran. I feel like it's a waste, but that's all I have to pay attention to. That's what "Ginjo" means to examine and brew.

Once the brewing plan is ready, the brewer makes a plan for the department he belongs to while looking at it. By when should we clean the koji room? We have to fix that machine by this day. increase.

After the annual event, the long winter begins

When I get home, I eat the last natto of the season. Especially in the department in charge of koji, it is said that "Bacillus subtilis (Bacillus natto) lowers the quality of koji" and has been strictly instructed since long ago. Bacillus subtilis produces spores called spores, which have shells that can withstand heat sterilization, specific chemicals, and drying.

In addition, if lactic acid bacteria enter the moromi, they can multiply and increase the acidity. In recent years, bacteria that reach the intestines alive have been selected, so there are many bacteria with strong alcohol resistance. I try not to eat natto, yogurt, kimchi, etc. during the production period, so I eat them before entering the warehouse.

When entering the brewery, the chairman and president will give greetings about this year's plans, measures to improve the quality of sake, and future prospects. After that, a drinking party called "face-to-face meeting" will be held.

Sake brewing, which will start again this year, can feel a little tedious, but once you enter the brewery, it's "usual". As a team, we move towards a big goal. A long winter is about to begin.

(Text/Illustration/Apple Magician)