Kikumasamune Sake Brewery – Kimoto Sake Brewing Method

With the rise of technology, many sake breweries are dropping the traditional path following production. However, Kikumasamune is one of the few sake breweries which still follows ancient sake production method. Watch the sake video to understand the reasons for keeping the traditional sake brewing method alive and the steps to produce sake following the Kimoto Zukuri method.

The authentic Kimoto method for brewing sake that produces the smooth, dry character of Kiku-Masamune’s sake. This painstaking technique, which constitutes the very origin of sake-brewing, comprises an ancient method for creating moto (shubo), the yeast starter mash, that will ultimately produce the alcohol in the beverage from water, rice, and malted rice (koji).

However, due to the fact that this sake brewing approach, which takes four weeks from start to finish, consumes about twice as much time and effort as the normal method and requires a technique that is extremely difficult to accomplish in a stable, consistent manner, only a very few of more than 1,000 sake breweries in Japan employ it. Most sake breweries add commercially available lactic acid and cultivated yeast in what has become known as the “quick fermentation” method (sokujo-moto), which yields results in a little more than two weeks. Nonetheless, the Kimoto sake brewing method, which has been passed down from the hands of one generation of master brewers to the next, has begun to attract renewed attention.