Kanpai!

On Sunday, we joined the Kyoto International Community House folks on one of their "local guided-tour events." We went to Gekkeikan Okura Sake museum, an old-fashioned sake brewery and a more modern sake plant. It was fun/interesting!

We were able to see sake in all of the different stages of brewing. We could walk over the fermentation tanks and see/smell exactly what was going on beneath us. It was amazing because there were no protective measures like glass walls or windows or security guards between the visitors and the sake. It's wonderful that Japan is so safe and the people here are so considerate that this system of trust works out. You know, in America we'd probably have lots of visitor-spit in our sake under the same conditions. :)

We also learned all about sake: why it is an important element of the Japanese food-culture, how it is made, how it used to be bottled, different methods for making labels, old advertising campaigns, etc...

The abridged version of the sake brewing process is this -
First you mill special sake rice until each grain is much smaller and polished. Then, soak the milled rice in water. Steam the rice and then add koji (a kind of fungi which was hilariously animated in a movie that we saw at the museum). The koji converts the starch in the rice into sugar. Then, add yeast which uses the sugar to produce alcohol. The sake sits in fermentation tanks at a variety of carefully computer controlled temperatures for a while. Next, the sake mix is pressed and filtered to remove all sediment. The rice mash sediment is then used to make rice crackers which unsurprisingly taste a lot like sake. Lastly, you enjoy your sake hot or cold.

The picture shows us enjoying some free samples of sake at the museum. Kanpai! (aka "Cheers!" in Japan)