Akashi Tai Brewery Co Ltd (Japan)

Fine, artisan Sake has been produced by the Akashi Sake Brewery for over a century.

The Yonezawa family, today headed by Toji (Sake Master) Kimio Yonezawa, have been producing artisan Sakes in the port city of Akashi in southwest Japan, for over a century. Found in Hyogo province, home to the famous Kobi beef, Akashi also has one of the most famous fish markets in Japan. In homage, a sea bream, or Tai in Japanese, is featured on the labels.

Embracing the best of innovation and tradition, their philosophy is to use the highest quality, local produced, Yamadanishiki and Gohyakumangoku rice, local spring water, and carefully nurtured Koji-kin which allows yeasts to ferment the starches in the rice. It is hand-crafted, in small batches, at every stage, by Kimio and his team of artisans. The rice is polished to between 70% and 50%, the amount of the original grain left. It is then washed and steeped before being steamed. After, it is gently cooled before Rice Koji, a type of beneficial mould which breaks down the starch in the grains in a process called saccharification, and Moto (or Shubo), the yeast that undertakes the fermentation, are added. The resulting sake is then filtered and pasteurised before storing and bottling.