Hey again!
Winter Is Coming!
Towards the end of autumn, when that light chill in the air becomes downright cold some exciting things begin happening in the sake world.
Winter is the brewing season, as the freezing air provides natural refrigeration to the fermentation process. We make sake year around here in Bushwick, as do many of the larger breweries across Japan now-a-days, but most still follow the traditional seasonal practice. In those breweries, a green sugidama 杉玉 (cedar ball) is hung to indicate the beginning of a new brewing season and last year’s sake is ready to be served. See our version of a sugidama, the “disco-dama” ディスコ玉 below:
If you’re lucky, at this point in the year you may even find a delicious Hiyaoroshi ひやおろし, which is the first release of last year's sake... unpasteurized, thanks to the cold weather keeping the sake fresh.
Even with our year around brewing, we are excited to welcome the end of autumn and early winter days, as they’ll soon allow us to ship our own unpasteurized sake, “Nama” around the state.
A Sophisticated Solution
As much as we love our koji spores, they seem to have a way of showing up wherever they please in the lab (potentially because our lab is only about 2 steps away from our koji muro 麹室). Unfortunately for our very talented “Yeast Labeler/Mad Scientist” a.k.a. Scott Simpson, that means trouble when trying to keep them out of experiments. Recently, he began trying some different solutions to combat their intrusions.
So.. what finally did the trick?
A fish tank.
No- it’s not filled with water or fish, but instead, placed on its side on the lab counter to create a sterile environment without any koji spores to be found.
If you’re curious about some of the fun projects happening now that we have our fancy fish tank in action, or actually just curious about anything to do with sake on a micro level, Scott is often in and out of the brewery and happens to be an excellent teacher… stop by to say hello!
Oh yeah!
Remember how we said to be on the lookout for warm jars of sake at the brewery? Well, the time has almost come… stay tuned on our social media.