Visiting Fukushima Sake Breweries with Miho and Elvira

0:21Welcome back to Sake on Air. This is Miho and I'm here with my good friend Elvira, Elvira Altaz. Can you introduce yourself a little bit, Elvira? Yes, of course. Thanks for having me here in Sake On Air again. I'm Elvira, I'm from Spain, from Madrid. and I'm a sake educator and kind of influencer in Spain because I'm trying to make people fall in love with sake in my country. It's a hard job, but I love it. So I came here this year to Japan to study at the Gakogura. I think you're going to explain a little bit about that now. And I'm also the founder, co-founder of Sochudo, a platform to educate people in Europe about Sochudo and Awamori.

1:16And I'm trying to import some sojo to Spain too. So let's see what happens. Great. So Gakogura is on Saddle Island. It's run by Owatashizo during the summertime when they don't make their own sake. So they take students or participants from all over the place for one week to three week program. Actually hands-on experience on sake making. So you did one week course. Yeah, I did the one-way course and it's enough because it's exhausting. It's a lot of labor. Right. Do you recommend it to other people who are interested in sake? Absolutely. Absolutely. You learn a lot. If you have a good team of curavitos with you, it's going to be a blast.

2:04So fun, exhausting. You sweat a lot. You learn a lot. And for me, it was a great experience because I get to feel like the flavors, the smells, the heat, the temperature of each part of the process in my bones in my in my skin so now I think I'm better at explaining to people the process of making sake because I've been there yes and this time when we were going through different breweries in Fukushima you also mentioned that you understood these different equipment facilities better because you had this experience exactly now i can see a a shovel a shovel tank and immediately know what it is and the different kinds of cooling the rice yeah now it's it's a great experience yeah and you you can tell which equipment it's different it's better so yeah i i love it i love the experience i recommend it a lot yeah to everyone yeah so you were a team of four people from all over the world making a small tank full of sake together yes yes you go through all the parts of the process in a week you make the koji from start you babysit the koji for for a night also and we did everything all this sandanji komi and the cooling of the rice all the rice we we need for the for the for the sake and everything yeah we did every part of the process and we my team were making the jumaida yinjo sparkling sake manotsuru from nobata zuzo so yes we leave our baby there did you choose what type or can you choose no no every week uh every team prepares a different sake ah i see very cool so when it was random yeah yeah yeah and you get a couple of bottles yeah yeah they're gonna send us yeah some bottles it's a gift very special bottles yes so Aelvira had three or four days after the Gakogura workshop so she wanted to go somewhere like focus on one area and do a brewery tour and she wanted to do it with me because we're friends and I was quite busy so I didn't really want to go anywhere too too far from Tokyo.

4:32So we decided upon Fukushima because it's relatively close to Tokyo and there are a lot of breweries. So I checked. According to the Fukushima prefectural site, there are over 50 sake breweries which is the fourth largest number of breweries in Japan. Another important reason why we decided upon, well, I decided upon Fukushima essentially, was that a lot of the breweries are quite close to the station, train station, so quite accessible without cars. And if I'm going on a brewery tour, I don't want to drive. So I said, let's go to Fukushima. And in the end, we only had two and a half days. Because traveling from Niigata to Fukushima was about like four or five hours, was it?

5:17Five hours, yeah, and three trains. Right, exactly. So we lost the first half day in traveling, but we ended up going to maybe about 10 breweries over two and a half days. Yeah. Yeah, so Fukushima is quite interesting because there are three main areas divided by mountain ranges. So the one that's closest to the coast is called Hamadori. And the slightly inland is Nakadori. and the one that's the most inland is aizu and i would say most sake breweries are in aizu area the most inland area so naturally we went to most aizu breweries this time the only one outside of aizu we went to was nidahonke in nakadori in the middle area of fukushima so day one we met in Koryama Station in Nakadori in the middle section of Fukushima to go to Nidahonke.

6:23Because this was on Thursday and Nidahonke during off seasons, they have regular tours on Thursdays at 2pm. You need an online reservation, but it's run quite regularly and quite informative. And they have an English guide if you don't speak Japanese. So do you want to talk a little bit about Nidahonke? Yeah, I love Nidahonke. I was so impressed. We have Nidahonke sake in Spain, but I didn't know they have this. They were so old. It's a very old brewery, but they have this modern approach to sake that I think is very refreshing, very interesting. I think I love the idea that they are replacing the tanks for these wooden kyoké tanks and they are so interested in doing like bringing back the traditional techniques and I love the kimoto room they have with this cedar smell amazing cedar smell and the persimmon coating so I was really really impressed about their ideas and they focus to like reclaim these traditional things but with a very very modern approach and you know i love their their kiyoshu i was so impressed by the kiyoshu because they they make a like a solera system because they they take the kiyoshu from the previous year and they use it in the next years so they are like building like a legacy kiyoshu kind of a way and this year's Kiyosu the 14th it was so so good I had to buy a bottle because I was so impressed yeah so as you mentioned Nidahonke is the third oldest sake brewery in Fukushima founded in 1711 which is over 300 years ago but they do have a kind of a new yet very traditional approach it's very interesting yeah use um natural rice and organic rice and natural rice being even more natural like not even a fertilizer like organic fertilizer so it's it's very very natural and their approach in brewing is also very natural they use a wild yeast now they're replacing as we mentioned tanks uh to wooden tanks so they have a property outside of brewery where they have a lot of cedar trees so they plant cedar trees strategically so they have enough wood to make one big fermentation tank per year so they have about like 20 so they're replacing uh one per year well I think there will be another like 13-14 years to replace everything but yeah no I think they have five now they have five yeah they have five yeah actually have six but the first one didn't really work or something and then so they they're using five so this time Yoshida-san and Zach from the brewery took us around and they are very informative and happy to show and share what their brewing is all about and they were super knowledgeable and had everything they are great guides yeah because you can feel they they love their work and they know everything and they have they enjoy it and they have experimented a lot with different things so you can ask any questions you have with to them right yeah so if you have time to go board this tour it's the best way to get to know Nida Honke but they have a shop in the brewery so if you go on a day where when they're not providing the tour you can still go to the shop and taste a few of them it's a 20 minute taxi ride from koryama station so koryama station is about hour and a half by train uh from tokyo so it's not very far but and taxi ride from the station is about 20 minutes but it's it goes up to like 5 000 yen per way so if you go alone it could be like a little bit expensive but I think for the tour it's definitely worth it it is 3 300 yen per person but definitely worth the time and travel to go absolutely especially if you come from Spain yeah yeah it's a long trip and yeah it's very informative I think it's so interesting I recommend going to Nidahonke yeah yeah and do you think Spanish people will like their sake?

11:08I think so. I think so. I think people in Spain, when we did the Iberkan pie, a lot of people went to the booth of their imported in Spain and they loved it. They told me it's more up to the Spanish palate because it has a little bit of acidity. It's more bold, more rich. So yeah, I think people who love like very clean sake maybe wouldn't love it, but Spanish people for sure yes it's going to be a blast if people get to know Nida Honk in Spain more yeah so it took us pretty much half a day to do the tour including all the travels at the end after the tour we went back to Cordillama station and there was an izakaya very old looking izakaya that I was eyeing before going to the brewery and so we just decided to go there and it happened to be run by Nidahunke and it's quite interesting because Nidahunke now they're making the buildings like rebuilding all these buildings in a very modern like clean designy way but this izakaya is super old school very showa as we say yeah absolutely for me it was being in a movie like being in a movie right so if you're in koryama area it's highly recommended uh you may need google translate uh or some kind of translation app if you're going yes but it's probably doable yeah on the second day i really wanted to go to minami aizu which is an hour south of aizu Wakamatsu because I have a friend who whose family runs a soba shop and I know that there is Kokken and there's Aizu Shiso which are both very good breweries and they're both within walking distance from the station so Aizu Wakamatsu is the capital of Aizu which is the most inland part of Fukushima and the train ride from there to Aizu Tajima which is the station closest to these breweries it's very beautiful all the train trips in this in this uh in this trip have been amazing because you're riding through forests and mountains and it's like being in a movie to me too because it's like an old samurai movie it's all nature everything is green a lot of rivers it's it's and it's very narrow sometimes the train goes through the the forest and through the the trees so I think it's amazing to look uh to look at the window the whole trip yeah not on your phone a lot of yeah it's true very very scenic a lot of mountains and very rich rice field everywhere yes yes yes absolutely and on my trip on my trip to Niigata from Niigata to to Fukushima it was the same it was like all forest all mountains yeah a lot of tunnels it was amazing yeah so another good reason to travel on trains rather than cars on the highway maybe exactly so generally um aizushizo and kokenshizo they don't take visitors um they don't take visitors around their brewery but i made a special special request this time because elvira does sake promotion in spain and they said yes but uh if you're going there as a visitor you can still go into their shops and look at their building from outside.

14:48So we first went to Aizushu Zob, which is the second oldest sake brewery in Fukushima, founded in 1688. Immediately, the building was just so historical and beautiful, right, Elvira? Yeah, it was amazing. And we get to see the old place where the old kurabitos used to have dinner and hang. and it was so cool too yeah it's super high ceilings all wooden yeah amazing amazing building yeah right yeah so the otanabe-san from the brewery the head of the brewery now said that these buildings are over 200 years old and and all wooden very spacious surprisingly spacious inside and yeah very beautiful and the fermentation room is also very very big and you see so many beams because they have very heavy snowfall in winter time yes that they told us that they have like over two meters of snow in winter goes down to minus 20 degrees they don't put heating system so they make sake in this what do you say he said imagine being in a freezer it's colder and we're making sake inside yeah yeah i think they have to run to the koji moodle sometimes to hit up a little bit because it's very very cold i assume yeah it's and it changes the flavor of the sake on the way they make it so it's very important also the weather is kind of the terroir of the sake there yeah yeah for sure what anef-san was telling us about how he approaches koji making because it's so dry and uh also the fermentation because it's also very very very cold yeah so usually naturally fermentation would take longer but uh he wants to keep it between like 21 28 days so they apply various heating equipments to warm up the mash a little bit um to keep it going which was very interesting so their main brand is uh aizu which is uh catered towards more local consumption but eight years ago they started another brand called yamanoi and he was telling us that through yamanoi they want to express the the nature and the natural environment of the season of Minami Aizu so in August they're releasing one called the Milky Way and the one they have now is called Iris so you can feel the nature the beauty of nature of Minami Aizu through their sake and they also designed the label accordingly as well which is yeah it was very impressive that he designed the labels that are so beautiful yeah yes yes and he gave us some tasting samples I love the idea that he did a lot of research and trial and error things when when he got the that he was the toji at first and I like the idea that he uses the same rice same koji the same yeast and everything, but only changing the process.

18:12And all the suckers we dated were so different. And it was so impressive that with the same ingredients, the doji can make these little changes and change the flavor. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. He mentioned that their water is very, very soft. Yeah. And they brew in a very cold environment. So I was expecting much lighter flavors. Yeah. Yeah. It was so flavorful. yeah i think so yeah and i love the like the old kind of sake they are still making for the locals because i feel it was very authentic and very flavorful yeah so i love it and then we went to kokken which is about 20 minute walk from aizushu so they're about only 500 meters apart kokken is i would say maybe bigger brand like nationally because i see more cooking than than aizu shizou's sake and the sake tastes much much fuller compared to to me like aizu shizou yeah and it was really interesting because it has a very different approach than aizu because they they let the fermentation last for 30 days the whole process and he didn't make any any shortened things to shorten the fermentation so it was like a more natural more more in touch with the weather and uh of the of the area so it i think it was more like a trying to express the local weather and uh and let koji and his make the job naturally so i think it was a very interesting and different approach maybe more natural less less intervention in the sakes.

20:07Hosoi-san, the head of brewery, was telling us also that he's not really into the trendy sake flavors that are super fresh, fruity that lasts for a very short time. He's more into a bit more structured classic that lasts for a while, like for months. and we can enjoy it with meal. I really taste that in Koken. I love Koken. I really wanted to go to Minami Aize partly because I wanted to visit Koken. Oh, great. Koken is about a five-minute walk from the station. Aize Shuzo is about 25. But even in mid-July, Minami Aize is quite cool. compared to other areas of Fukushima and definitely cooler than Tokyo.

21:07So the walk was quite pleasant. Yeah, we walk a lot this trip. We made so many steps. Both breweries are using mostly local rice, which is quite nice to hear because I like local, you know, like everything local. Yeah, me too. And we didn't know, but Minami Aizu, The four breweries in Minami Aizu is now registered as GI Minami Aizu since August 2024. And it's the smallest GI. It's only a town. First GI in Fukushima. So now they're trying to promote the area through this GI system. And at the train station, they have a special vending machine. the very first sake tasting vending machine in Fukushima.

21:59The other two breweries are a little bit further, so we didn't visit this time, but you can still have some tasting samples in this vending machine. Yeah, I think it's a great idea to promote sake from the area, yes. Because you can try everything in one go, yeah. It's true. And have this feeling, this idea of the region, yeah. So it's 200 yen per sample. And they have one sample from each four breweries plus one monthly special. So five in total. Needless to say, we did some samples. Of course.

22:43So one thing to keep in mind is that there is only one or two trains per hour between Aizu Wakamatsu and Minami Aizu Tajima. So if you want to keep the time in the back of your head, so you don't have to wait for an hour for the next train. And then when we went back to Aizu Wakamatsu, we did a quick visit to Tsuruno-e. It was only to the shop because it was open until 6 p.m. so we basically just like got the last five minutes of the shop and and generously they gave us tasting samples of some of their their sake and we really liked them right yes they were really good yeah we did a couple of namas I think they were so fresh yeah so good yeah right and And then for dinner, before dinner, we went to a standing sake bar.

23:46So there is a tiny corner sake standing bar, which would probably fit like 10 people max, maybe. Yeah, yeah. And they have like 20 to 30 different sakes, all from Aizu area, all Jumai or higher, and run by two sisters in their late 60s, maybe early 70s. Do you have to pull up them a little bit, Elvira? They were so nice, these ladies. They told us they used to work in Tokyo, one of them as a chef. So they came back to their town because their parents were old and weak. So they came back to the area where they were born. And they started this restaurant with a standing bar. and it was so interesting because we we were just there for a couple of sakes and then this lady showed us like a live a life fish on a tank and say which what do you want do you want some sashimi fresh sashimi and that was the freshest sashimi i've eaten in my life like 15 15 minutes yeah so amazing and they were amazing and they fried the rest of the fish for us and I think it was an amazing experience yeah and everything was so tasty and they were so chatty and nice yeah right so it's called konbei ginza kyuchome because they used to have a little izakaya or they say koryoria so it's like a like a nice bar with good food uh in ginza in tokyo so ginza and even if you don't get to go to breweries or like taste uh tasting samples at the breweries you can taste all sorts of sakes from aizu at this bar so it's highly recommended but again if you don't speak japanese it could be slightly challenging but with a translation app yeah it's very difficult yeah even with the translation app there's some new apps that can read written Japanese, handwritten.

26:06But it's very difficult because Google Translate doesn't work. Everything is handwritten. I guess in that case, the ladies will ask you what kind of sake you're looking for and you can translate refreshing or more rich and then show that to them. And they can recommend a few different ones. and then you can make pictures of of the label and see where they're from yeah yeah and you can you can pick and point too and you can say I want that and that's it yeah yeah yeah for me it was very funny because they serve the sakes in a little cocktail glasses right like dry martini glasses we should have asked why but we didn't yeah okay and day three we decided to go to Kitakata because there are a lot of breweries in Kitakata as well and we were lucky because we happened to go there on a festival day and there was a big booth run by Kitakata Breweries and they had so many tasting samples as well.

27:20Yeah. But before that, we went around a few breweries. So Kitanohana, Yoshinokawa, Imekokoro, and Mineno Yuki. So these are all within walking distance from the station. Maybe like the furthest was maybe 20, 25 minute walk. Yeah, yeah. and I don't think they do a brewery tour any of them except for Kita no Hana there was a sign that said we can show you the brewery but you need to reserve in advance yeah it's not that easy maybe for foreigners right it's probably run only in Japanese yeah but at Kita no Hana they gave us some tasting samples in the shop and the old man was very very nice yes he was and also very very tasty sake yeah it was so good yeah right hi guys i'm popping in here after the recording just to tell you that the rest of the breweries were closed because it was sunday a lot of breweries are actually closed on weekends so you should check the hours before the visits and anyways we just walked by and saw the rest of the breweries from outside but Mine-no-yuki which makes sake and mead I believe has a shop also we couldn't go on this trip but Yamatokawa Shuzo has a space called Hoppofudokan where they display old sake making tools and equipments so if you're interested you should check that out okay back to the recording so we tasted about six tasting samples at the festival at the booth yeah yeah because we had to leave otherwise we have tasted all of them it's true you know we had six each so like altogether 12 yeah yeah yeah do you have any impression of of kitakata sake from that experience I thought that mostly all of them were on the drier side but more they have like a sweetness on it like a richness that I thought it was very good to drink knits because one thing that happens to some sakes is that they are very good with food but when I make tastings in Spain I conduct tastings in Spain when you drink the sakes knits they are not that good they need food they ask for food so i think maybe kitakata sakas are the ones you can drink neat and enjoy it at the festival as we did just yeah because they're very flavorful that's right very balanced yeah right right right so good probably with food but also without food exactly it's not that easy i think most sakas ask for food and makes you hungry yeah it's a good thing yeah it's a good thing for me but yeah in a tasting some people don't understand right a sake can can mix with food and be better yeah yeah and at the festival we also learned that Kitakata is also recently registered as GI yeah um so there is GI Kitakata now as of March 2025 um so yeah there are two GIs in Fukushima now yeah very new yeah and so for the the whole trip we based ourselves in aizu wakamatsu which is the capital of aizu area and kitakata is only 20 minutes by train local train um but again you want to check the timetable before you leave because i was gonna go back i thought i could go back anytime and it's only 20 minutes but um the next train was like in an hour and we couldn't really wait so we decided to take a bus back instead which was fine yeah a little longer so you yeah if you go to um the countryside or like outside of big city areas you really need to be conscious about timetables of public transportation yes and and then we went back to Aizu Wakamatsu.

31:39We made one last quick visit to a brewery which wasn't exactly a brewery. Suehiro Shuzo has a regular museum tour almost every day, like about five times a day. It's all in Japanese. They give you a brief explanation of how sake is made, what makes, what process makes different sake uh all those basics of of sake making and then they take you to this room that has a lot of old sake making equipments and then and they take you to the aging room where they're aging a lot of bottles of uh their daiginjo and ginjo yeah that was interesting to see the old equipment yeah i think it's worth a visit and it's free yeah it is free and at the end uh they also let you taste a few different sakes which we had to do very quickly because we had to run for the bus yes um so that was like one two three four five six seven eight nine breweries some more in depth some very brief uh over two and a half days in Fukushima how was the trip in general I think it was worth it it's a lot of information and tasting but also like getting to know an area like a rural area with a lot of nature also and traditions and very old buildings that any foreigner can can can enjoy so I think it was an amazing two and a half days very packed but also very relaxed and fun so i think it's it's great if you're in toko and you have two and a half days left like i had it's amazing to go to fukushima yeah do you think if you had this itinerary you could do it on your own i don't know i i don't think so especially the the brewery tours because they are mostly in in Japanese and they don't have anyone who speaks English so it's very difficult to communicate and yeah I think it's kind of difficult if you don't have a Japanese person with you or someone who speaks Japanese.

34:03Okay so that you could definitely visit these breweries but the experience would be better if you go with someone who understands the language. Yeah exactly yeah maybe you can go to Nidahonke because they have a Canadian curavito he can explain everything in English and maybe some other breweries have English speaking persons but I think it's very as you get out Tokyo and the main cities in Japan everything turns quite difficult especially communication people are very open they are helpful but it's difficult to communicate without the language right yeah that's true yeah and I forgot to mention but on the first day if we if we had one full day in Nagadori in the middle area of Fukushima, we only could go to Nidahonke this time.

34:53But if you have a full day, people can probably also go to Daishichi, which is a big famous brewery. It's also accessible by public transportation from Koryama. It's about 40 minutes. So yeah, for another trip. Yeah, next time. Next time, yeah. So when we say sake from Fukushima, I kind of have my own image of Fukushima sake. But from this trip, what was your impression? Well, it's not all Fukushima sake because we've only been into an area. Because as you said, there's three different areas and different weathers, different nature. So I think from Aizu was the main area we've been there. I think that they had a lot of young tojis in a way.

35:54It has been very interesting for the prefecture because they can research and challenge the old ways of making sake in Fukushima. And they are getting with a lot of new and exciting ways of work. and they are like trying a lot of different things and some of them are getting to different conclusions and they are making like, as the one we said, the same ingredients for a lot of different sakes. Another person tries to do it more natural, more classic. Someone's tried to appeal the younger generations with more light sake. So there are a lot of different kind of sakes over there in Fukushima. It's difficult to say what it ties up together all of them I think it's because they are quite quite modern but with all techniques and they are on the drier side I said like Niigata I was in Niigata before so I could tell the difference because they are they're on the drier side but they are like more juicy and more like balanced and a little bit more sweet and I think they are they are super nice and yeah but they are very different among them i think they are yeah yes yeah so yeah my image is on the lighter side quite juicy slightly on the sweeter side but very light very delicious i really like fukushima sake and this time we got to talk to two brewers from three different breweries and we asked what was Fukushima sake and all of them said diversity as Elvira mentioned there are three different areas with different climates different food culture different type of like personalities and a lot of breweries like over 50 and another thing that was constantly mentioned was that the brewers are very open to each other they have a lot of interactions they share a lot of knowledge and skills partly because Fukushima has Seishu Academy so not only the heads of the brewery but the brewers themselves also participate in this three-year program where a lot of brewers from like different breweries from within Fukushima come and participate so Hosoi-san from Kokken said that it's not just the president of the breweries but the the actual brewers and staff also know each other and they can if they ask questions they don't hide anything uh partly because they also know that it's hard to repeat you know what they do in different breweries so they're not scared of sharing information which is very cool and Watanabe-san from Aizushuzo mentioned that Fukushima's sake used to be very diverse and then there was a period of time where all the breweries in Fukushima tried to make really good quality sake and then a lot of that sake flavor and quality became quite similar but now they're entering a new age of going back to the old days um going more unique making sake that they they can only make in the brewery so it's starting to get more diverse again once again so that was quite interesting to hear if anyone who's visiting the tokyo area and have a couple days couple free days who are interested in visiting some sake breweries and history goshima is a great place to visit a local food yes a lot of delicious sake and food it's a great trip yeah and that's it for this episode of sake on air please take a moment to review and rate us on apple podcast or wherever you're enjoying the show feel free to send your questions and comments to questions at sake on air or at sake on air on instagram and facebook and we'll be back with more Sake On Air in just two weeks.

40:06Until then, kanpai! Sake On Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake & Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake & Shochu Information Center in downtown Tokyo. It is produced by Export Japan, and our team is Shuso Imada, Justin Potts, Arlene Lyons, Cindy Bissig, Chris Hughes, Chris Pellegrini, John Gottner, Marie Nagata, Miho Ota, Rebecca Wilson-Lye, Sebastian LeJuan, and me, Frank Walter. Until next time, Kampai!