Kobe Shu-shin-kan Breweries, Ltd.
The Fukuju Sake Brewery (Kobe Shu-shin-kan Breweries, Ltd.) already started brewing refined sake at the current site back in 1751. The brewery is located in Mikakego, in the Nada district in the town of Kobe. The Nada district is responsible for a third of Japan’s total sake production, but in addition to the gigantic firms, you will also find smaller breweries, like Fukuju, which exclusively specialise in quality sake. The name ‘Fukuju’ is an abbreviation of ‘Fukurokuju’: a well known Japanese lucky god. The brewery thereby expresses the wish that anyone who enjoys this sake can count on a great deal of luck and a long life.
The brewery is of the opinion that good koji is the foundation for all good sake. Koji is a quantity of rice on which a special type of fungus is grown (Aspergillus Oryzae), which ensures the starch in the rice is converted to glucose, which in turn means fermentation to alcohol can take place. This is why the koji rice is produced by hand in traditional koji rooms with wooden walls and a temperature set to around 30 degrees.
Fukuju only uses the very best sake rice, like Yamada Nishiki, produced by farmers in the area to the North of Mt. Rokko in Kobe under special contract conditions. The sake is exclusively brewed with the natural ‘Miyamizu’: water from special wells in the nearby Nishinomiya. Just how ideal this water was for creating exquisite sake was first discovered back in the 19th century.
As the main brewer (toji), a toji from Tajima is employed at the brewery. Tajima is an area to the North of the Hyogo Prefecture, which is well known for the craftsmanship of its sake brewers. The Fukuju Brewery is still brewing sake in accordance with traditional, manual methods today. As they say themselves, here the sake “is given just as much loving attention as the children who are raised here.”
The versatile rice wine from Japan
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