Workers prepare rice for making sake at the Dassai brewery in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
Sake drinkers hoping to watch seasoned craftsmen show off ancient skills with antique wooden equipment will be out of luck on a tour of the Dassai brewery in Yamaguchi prefecture.
The gleaming 12-story brewery, about 40 minutes’ drive from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, is a high-tech facility that wouldn’t look out of place at a NASA launch site.
That makes sense given the company’s connection to the International Space Station and plans to take its product to the moon.
Dassai president Kazuhiro Sakurai speaks to visitors at his sake brewery in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
Company president Kazuhiro Sakurai, a suave gentleman in a tailored suit, will tell you all about it if you run into him during a tour of the brewery.
The company recently sold a single, 100-mL bottle of sake brewed on the space station for 100 million yen — about $645,000.
A tour of the Yamaguchi brewery starts with visitors donning rubber slippers, protective coats and hairnets, then stepping into an air shower to make sure they don’t bring contaminants inside.
To get a close-up view of sake making, visitors climb stairs and trek through galleries filled with machinery. There’s an explanation of rice polishing and examples of various grades of polished rice to check out. You can see a massive metal rice steamer in another part of the plant.
Bottles of Dassai sake make their way along the bottling line at the company’s brewery in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
In one room, staff spread cooked rice on tables before adding mold. A much colder room houses dozens of fermentation tanks that exude a strong alcoholic odor.
Dassai’s crew of young brewers analyze every part of the sake-brewing process, according to Sakurai.
There’s a room full of printed charts that show test results used to create the perfect brew. Nearby the brewers, clad in white coats, look like rocket scientists as they analyze sake samples.
A hostess prepares Dassai sake samples for tasting in a room next to the factory where it’s brewed in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan. (Seth Robson/Stars and Stripes)
Once you’ve learned all there is to know about sake brewing, it’s time to taste the product.
Cross the road and a small bridge and you’ll find yourself in a shop equipped with small tables where you can sample several types of sake or even eat sake ice cream while you enjoy the peaceful, green scenery of the countryside.
You can also purchase sake brewed on site such as a 720-miL bottle of the company’s flagship brand Dassai 23, which sells for 5,200 yen.
On the QT
Directions: 2167-4 Shutomachi Osogoe, Iwakuni, Yamaguchi 742-0422
Times: Brewery tours start at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. daily; the sake shop is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
Costs: The brewery tour costs 1,000 yen, with an additional 500-yen tasting fee.
Food: Sake-flavored ice cream sells for 1,000 yen.
Information: Online: dassai.com/tour
