So today we are in Kobe japan and I'm going to take you inside the brewery and show you how sake is handmade.

But before I start, like always if you want to see what I'm doing on the daily, check out my instagram account.

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Alright, let me take you on this tour.

Let's go get your cuffs ready as I'm taking you to hock.

It's located in nada.

Go go Kobe japan, a flourishing sake producing areas since the Edo period today there are 1550 sake breweries here, accounting for more than one quarter of Japan's total sake production.

And this brewery founded in 17 43 is a top sake producer in the area with 100 hardworking brewers crafting sake, love not only in, but all throughout the world.

The factory is probably most known for madu.

The everyday japanese man's daily sake produced throughout the year, but today I'm taking you on a different path produced only in the winter.

You and I are going on a journey to see firsthand how these expert brewers use a traditional method of handcrafting, its highest grade sake, Die Jinju truly earning the title made in japan.

Cool, I've made it inside, this is always the fun part, let's do this and there we go all rice.

Let's begin sake ingredients are pretty simple rice water and koji, a specific japanese mode used for culinary fermentation rice suitable for sake though is a little different from the rice you and I eat as a grain must be large, hard and low in protein and fat to create a clear sake taste, which is why the brewers use the king of sake rice, Yamada Nishiki grown here in Hugo.

It's polished down to 38% compared to standard sake rice at 70% which requires even more delicate care and flawless technique to properly craft the highest end sake.

Oh damn!

And it all starts with japan's typical morning radio Tysoe the cuda veto Ak sake brewers have a fairly strenuous day ahead.

So they all start off in the morning stretch over loudspeaker.

Once limbered up, the brewers wash and sanitize their hands to ensure the cleanest environment as possible.

Okay, let's see what's going on over here.

Splish splash.

This is where the brewers get craft against each grain of rice is washed and soaked before it's made into sake.

A critical point in the process that every second counts, literally Even a three second.

Soak would increase the rice water content by 0.1% equipped with hundreds of years of knowledge and experience the brewers are able to finally gauge and infused water into each grain of rice in a manually controlled process of buckets of water and rice apparently back in the day, the brewers would.

Sing to time the process, but these days they use a timer to craft a more accurate sake.

Oh cool.

I think this is where they stay in the race time to get turned up.

So a day later the machine begins the steaming process.

The brewers load yesterday's silk rice into a giant rice steamer called Yoshiki, which can seem up to 350 kg, £770 of rice in about an hour.

Unlike most commonly used factory rice steamers, which steam writes on a long conveyor belt, the pressure of the cash, It can be a judge throughout the entire steaming process which allows her experience and highly skilled brewers demanding to control the end result of the steamed rice.

Apparently this handcrafted sake has a long fermentation process which requires a rather hard out of right shell.

Otherwise it would turn into much along the way but soft enough center for the koji to grow.

Yoshiki allows the brewers to attain this perfect balance.

Hi, what are you doing?

Can I ask what you need to be most careful about in this process.

Can you eat this rice?

How long have you been making?

Thanks has been seen?

They're about to take it out.

Let's pop this top already.

Oh, I guess they have to coordinate a bit before they get the road on the show.

Apparently this part of the process needs to be done quickly to ensure that the rice cools down properly and the moisture evaporates and from here, the steamed rice is separated for different stages of the sake, crafting koji production, chabot and maroni.

No cap, it's demon.

Make no mistake, the rice is extremely hot yet the skilled brewers still use their bare hands to spread it as it's the only way for them to truly judge and feel the conditions of the rice at the perfect temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, 104 F.

The rice is moved to the koji muro, especially designed room to grow koji, which is hot and humid, kind of like a sauna.

It's critical for the brewers to spread out each grain of rice evenly so they cool down at the same rate.

One spread the rice arrested for two hours with the temperature and humidity perfectly controlled.

Unlike mass produced, where the rice is cooled by machines, rice cooled in an open room requires master brewers who can detect the slightest of changes in the rice by feel and sight alone and then can skillfully make the required adjustments.

Okay, let's go.

We made it to the kitty stage where the koji spores are spread onto the rice.

Nobody move everyone inside watching must remain completely still and silent as the koji sports are so tiny and light that any movement can blow it onto the floor or cause it to be unevenly distributed onto the rice, ruining the entire batch koji mold itself is used to make many traditional japanese foods such as soy sauce and miso and japanese sake.

It produces the alcohol by breaking down the starch into sugar.

Also known as the clarification or malting.

Excuse me.

So what's the deal here?

Does it stick to your hands?

So what's your favorite part of handcrafting?

What's your favorite sucking?

Anything else?

Now that the brewers have evenly spread the koji mold throughout the rice, they wrap the rice up to help lock in the moisture and promote the growth of the mold.

Apparently the table itself is a scale.

So the brewers are able to quickly measure how much water content remains without having to unwrap the rice.

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Cool, that's it.

Let's continue on with this handmade sake adventure.

So just behind me is the rice all wrapped up.

Let's see what happens next.

Here we go again overnight.

The rice naturally gets harder and sticks together so the brewers must use their bare hands along with a sifter to separate every single grain of rice called kitty Casey hot, sucking the brewers, make sure to separate every last grain once completely separated.

The brewers.

Lay rice into wooden trays called koji Botha To further encourage the koji growth by separating the rice into smaller piles.

It's easier to control the temperature and water content of each grain, ensuring that the mold grows at the same rate.

Now, the koji rice must rest for one more day, but that's exactly the opposite for the brewers as they continuously monitor the temperature, humidity and water content throughout the day and even through the night by regularly shuffling the trays and mixing the koji.

Some of the brewers even live in the brewery to make it all, huh?

Apparently the hardest part of growing the koji is controlling the conditions and environment.

One miscalculation by the brewers could result in the koji mold growing too fast, Too slow or stop growing altogether tending to the rice is a tireless process but necessary to handcraft the highest quality sake possible.

And this is how the brewers are just a koji in the trays to create the most ideal environment for the koji mold to reproduce brewers not only shovel the trades, but also makes the piles of koji rice itself and certain forms at different stages of the growth, like making a dip in the center or creating these lines.

Excuse me, What are you doing?

I see what's the most important.

I think when you're doing this and why do you need to use wooden trays, He also says the rice would quickly fill with carbon dioxide and the water content inside wouldn't evaporate evenly so the trays allow them to finally manage the koji growth.

After almost two days of endless adjustments, the rice has fully matured so the brewers can move it out of the koji muro.

The koji rice itself has taken a completely new form and texture as each single grain of rice has now been infused with koji mold and look at this.

It's getting all damn garden up in here for the cooling down.

So now that all the rice has been laid off to cool, all we have to do now is just wait.

We're finally here, I feel like we've grown so much since the beginning of the video.

Well, at least the koji has and now it's time for the rights to become alcohol.

I think I've been waiting my entire life for this moment matured rice, koji water and yeast are mixed together to produce the showboat.

Oh wow.

The brewers are using locally sourced local mountain subsoil water with its uniquely high mineral content in japan, which helps the growth of koji mold and yeast.

Another reason why brewing is so popular in this area.

The water itself is a key ingredient to creating the brewer's signature sharp and clear sake taste, Watching this entire process is really making me want to drink right now, but cold rocks, we got to keep this video going.

So the brewers use their own special blend of yeast to produce the highest quality handcrafted sake.

In fact, brewer store about 400 different types of yeast, each producing its own distinct flavor, which allows the brewers ability to expertly mix them in order to develop an exact flavor.

There's actually so much going on all at the same time, I'm having to run back and forth.

This is getting tiring anyways, it's time to create the maroni fermenting mash rice, rice koji and water added three times over four days.

But depending on the sake being crafted, the mash can be produced all at once or even adding rice and water up to 78 times the, we rely heavily on their historical data analysis to produce a consistent sake, but slight changes in the environment, weather rights quality, et cetera must be manually accounted for by the brewers, meaning that crafting sake is less like a static ratio of mixed ingredients, but more of a blending of technique and ingredients to create a consumable living piece of art.

I wonder what's behind that door over there.

Oh cool.

They have the tanks up here, yup, we're in Heaven storage room where all the different stages of sake are kept brewers regularly check each tank and make the necessary adjustments here to ensure that the soccer is fermenting correctly, bubble, bubble toil and trouble if you serve me this sake double.

Let's get out of here before I find a cup.

So one of the difficult things to capture in this video is the wonderful aroma of this sake.

It just smells so good in here.

I wish you guys were here to smell it.

All right there.

Getting ready right now for the final part.

Yeah, the diet ginger sake is finally ready after almost a month of fermentation.

It's filtered in.

The traditional japanese method called neurosurgery, literally meeting hanging bags.

Usually this process is performed by machines with pressure, but for the brewers highest quality de Guindos sake, they do it all by hand, taking advantage of natural gravity to filter the sake.

Damn, that doesn't smell good in the air.

Finally, the Tokaji, the master brewer in charge of the entire production has the final taste with his approval.

The sake is bottled up and ready for shipping, although a massive undertaking for the team of brewers, only 1000 bottles are handcrafted each year, making it an extremely sought after sake all around the world.

So that's how sake is handmade in Japan.

If you guys like this video helped me out and hit that like button and if you guys want to see more videos like this or anything related to Japan, hit that subscribe button and the button and I'll catch you guys in the next one.