"The Road to Rebuilding the Traditional Brewery" PAGE2
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I Love Sake so Much, I Could Die Here!!
In order to give people a chance to learn something about the traditional culture of sake brewing while the Sawanotsuru Museum is under construction, Sawanotsuru set up an exhibition of traditional sake brewing tools and equipment in the Zuihogura building in March 1996. There are also tours of Sawanotsuru's sake brewing facilities (during the brewing season only; reservations necessary). There was a group visiting the facilities on the day we were there, so we joined them for a tour of the brewery. We proceeded at once to the top floor. As the door opened, we found ourselves in the rice steaming room where the sweet smell of rice being steamed was wafting through the air. Just out of interest, the amount of rice that is steamed every day at Zuihogura is equivalent to the amount the average person, eating two bowls of rice a day, would eat in 100 years! Looking north out the windows of the top floor, you can see Rokko Mountain. They say that long ago the winds blowing from Rokko were used to cool off the freshly steamed rice. Directly to the south is the ocean. This advantageous geographical location is said to be a major reason for the prosperity of Nada. Looking at the scenery, it's easy to understand! Next it was down one floor to learn about rice moulding (koji). Here, we saw the green koji spores and tasted koji rice while listening to an explanation of the conversion of starch to sugar.The koji rice had a taste somewhat like a faintly sweet chestnut.		On the first floor is an exhibition of traditional sake brewing tools and equipment. These items will be transferred to the Sawanotsuru Museum when it is completed. On the top floor is the upper section of a vertical continuous raw ingredient processing device. The device's main section is one floor down. The machine can steam 3t of rice per hour. Mr. Nishitani of the General Affairs Division gave a cheerful, easy-to-understand tour.
Going down one more floor brought us in front of the fermentation room, where we could see several fermentation tanks behind a large window. According to Mr. Nishitani of Sawanotsuru's General Affairs Division, "People who like sake often say they would like to swim in these tanks. However, the tanks are full of alcohol and carbonated gas, so you would die in just a few seconds in there. Workers who are stirring the mash wear special harnesses to prevent them from falling in." At this explanation, an older gentleman remarked, "Well, since I'm going to die anyway..." I'm not sure whether he was serious or joking, but I think I can understand his feeling.