Japan's Mineral Water:Fukumitsuya / Kagatobi
If you haven't had a chance to catch up with this series I recommend reading this article and this article first, and maybe even this one too.
" While writing this, I was listening to "In the White Silence: Letter C" by Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble."
In this installment, we are heading to northwestern Japan on the Sea of Japan side of Honshu near Mount Kigo and Mount Hakusan. This region is blessed with mineral wealth and an abundance of natural mineral water and delicious nihonshu. Another name for this part of Japan is called the Hokuriku region, where it is said that the true soul of Japan exists. This region of Japan is defined as including four prefectures; Toyama, Fukui, Ishikawa, and Niigata, all of which are prefectures very famous for making outstanding nihonshu. Tonight's journey will take us to Ishikawa prefecture.
" While writing this, I was listening to "Music & Theta Brain Wave Therapy" by Kelly Howell"
Of course, let's take a look at the water first. .
( Hakusan is where this water comes from. You can see it located below Kanazawa).
The water breaks down as follows: Sodium 48.0mg, calcium 90.0mg, magnesium 54.0mg, potassium 7.8mg. The final pH balance is 7.8. The end result is fairly hard water[やや硬水] or ya ya kou-sui as indicated on the bottle. So in such a case, we have another instance where fairly hard water is not entirely that bad for brewing a nihonshu.
Drinking
Not all mineral water tastes the same. All mineral water has its own distinguishable characteristics.
While writing this, I was listening to "The Planner's Promise" by Trevor Morris
Kagatobi
The brewery is located here:
The next segment of this essay will introduce the nihonshu that was made by this mineral water. She's called kagatobi, junmai daigenjo, and she has been brewed using some of the finest methods in sake making. That method being the Yamahai Shikomi method of preparing the yeast starter that involves natural lactic bacteria but eschews mixing the poles. These types will generally by a bit gamier.
The two rice grains used are Yamada-Nishiki, sake rice indigenous to Hyogo Prefecture and the area surrounding it. Generally regarded as the best sake rice. The second rice used is called Kinmon- Nishiki which is an extremely rare, yet highly prized rice grain hailing from Nagano prefecture. Water and rice infused is the soul of sake, and then there's the koji.
The featured products. Of course I drink with Riedel for maximum aroma.
Polished rice at 65%, sake meter value +5, acid 1.65, alcohol content 15. Flavor profiles should be rich and flavorsome.
Tasting:
You can immediately taste the rice. This sake has texture and balance to it. It's easy to drink. The blending of the two rice grains and the medium-hard water add beauty and sexiness to this sake. There's also a slight discoloration in the sake too, although this may have changed in recent years. I mentioned in previous posts that hard water discolors sake which sometimes can be merit in how the finished products turns out. Case by case on this one.
While writing this, I was listening to "The Planner's Promise" by Trevor Morris
Amendment: 2021
" While writing this, I was listening to "In the White Silence: Letter C" by Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble."
In this installment, we are heading to northwestern Japan on the Sea of Japan side of Honshu near Mount Kigo and Mount Hakusan. This region is blessed with mineral wealth and an abundance of natural mineral water and delicious nihonshu. Another name for this part of Japan is called the Hokuriku region, where it is said that the true soul of Japan exists. This region of Japan is defined as including four prefectures; Toyama, Fukui, Ishikawa, and Niigata, all of which are prefectures very famous for making outstanding nihonshu. Tonight's journey will take us to Ishikawa prefecture.
" While writing this, I was listening to "Music & Theta Brain Wave Therapy" by Kelly Howell"
Of course, let's take a look at the water first. .
( Hakusan is where this water comes from. You can see it located below Kanazawa).
The water breaks down as follows: Sodium 48.0mg, calcium 90.0mg, magnesium 54.0mg, potassium 7.8mg. The final pH balance is 7.8. The end result is fairly hard water[やや硬水] or ya ya kou-sui as indicated on the bottle. So in such a case, we have another instance where fairly hard water is not entirely that bad for brewing a nihonshu.
Drinking
Not all mineral water tastes the same. All mineral water has its own distinguishable characteristics.
While writing this, I was listening to "The Planner's Promise" by Trevor MorrisKagatobi
The brewery is located here:
The next segment of this essay will introduce the nihonshu that was made by this mineral water. She's called kagatobi, junmai daigenjo, and she has been brewed using some of the finest methods in sake making. That method being the Yamahai Shikomi method of preparing the yeast starter that involves natural lactic bacteria but eschews mixing the poles. These types will generally by a bit gamier.
The two rice grains used are Yamada-Nishiki, sake rice indigenous to Hyogo Prefecture and the area surrounding it. Generally regarded as the best sake rice. The second rice used is called Kinmon- Nishiki which is an extremely rare, yet highly prized rice grain hailing from Nagano prefecture. Water and rice infused is the soul of sake, and then there's the koji.
The featured products. Of course I drink with Riedel for maximum aroma.
Polished rice at 65%, sake meter value +5, acid 1.65, alcohol content 15. Flavor profiles should be rich and flavorsome.
Tasting:
You can immediately taste the rice. This sake has texture and balance to it. It's easy to drink. The blending of the two rice grains and the medium-hard water add beauty and sexiness to this sake. There's also a slight discoloration in the sake too, although this may have changed in recent years. I mentioned in previous posts that hard water discolors sake which sometimes can be merit in how the finished products turns out. Case by case on this one.
While writing this, I was listening to "The Planner's Promise" by Trevor MorrisAmendment: 2021
This sake range is called Kuroobi, Japanese for black belt, not Kagatobi. The Kuroobi sake range are all deliberately aged from 1 to 5 years to bring out fuller unami and flavors and made for drinking warmed and paired with food.
Hard water vs soft water mainly refers to the number of minerals present in the water. Not bad vs good for brewing. Hard water has a higher amount of the crucial minerals for brewing and so promotes faster and more vigorous fermentation, resulting in more boisterous flavors and drier, sharper sake. Soft water has smaller amounts of crucial minerals, so fermentation is much slower, and flavors are more gentle and delicate.
Breweries select their water sources because these water sources do not have or have very little presence of the undesirable minerals that spoil and discolor sake.
The colour you see is not discoloration from hard water, it comes from aging the sake. The light hay yellow colour is also typical of yamahai sakes. Sake is colorless when the brewers use active charcoal powder for filtration at the roka stage, otherwise, the colours of sake actually range from light gold to light green.
The sake featured is a junmaishu. Ginjo is 60% polishing and below, and a daiginjo has to be 50% and below.
This "Kuroobi Do-Do Yamahai Junmaishu" is a blend of a junmaishu and a yamahai junmai ginjo, and the polishing rate of the junmaishu's 65% dictates the labeling
Hard water vs soft water mainly refers to the number of minerals present in the water. Not bad vs good for brewing. Hard water has a higher amount of the crucial minerals for brewing and so promotes faster and more vigorous fermentation, resulting in more boisterous flavors and drier, sharper sake. Soft water has smaller amounts of crucial minerals, so fermentation is much slower, and flavors are more gentle and delicate.
Breweries select their water sources because these water sources do not have or have very little presence of the undesirable minerals that spoil and discolor sake.
The colour you see is not discoloration from hard water, it comes from aging the sake. The light hay yellow colour is also typical of yamahai sakes. Sake is colorless when the brewers use active charcoal powder for filtration at the roka stage, otherwise, the colours of sake actually range from light gold to light green.
The sake featured is a junmaishu. Ginjo is 60% polishing and below, and a daiginjo has to be 50% and below.
This "Kuroobi Do-Do Yamahai Junmaishu" is a blend of a junmaishu and a yamahai junmai ginjo, and the polishing rate of the junmaishu's 65% dictates the labeling
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