The Asahi Shinbun Digital reports on a presentation by Aomori Brewers Association to Prefectural Governor Shingo Mimura on 24 June 2019, where they revealed they had successfully brewed with a new Aomori-grown sake-specific rice variety called Gin’eboshi. Sake made with the new rice variety, which is able to withstand the cold wind from the Pacific Ocean, will soon be shipped to locations inside and outside the prefecture.
The report was delivered by the presidents of four breweries: Hatomasamune, Momokawa, Sekinoi and Hachinohe. Some already launched seven types of sake this spring, and some intend to have new products ready in the autumn. Nobuaki Inamoto, president of Hato Masamune, said it was the sake rice they had been waiting for, and he hoped to attend lots of events to promote the sake made with it.
The Aomori Industrial Technology Center (AITC), which developed the variety, said the rice used for brewing was Gineboshi harvested in 2018 in the cities of Mutsu and Towada and the village of Oirase. Masahiko Chiba, who leads the Hirosaki industrial research laboratory at the AITC, commented that they had developed a variety with good resistance to both cold and disease, and easier to produce high yields from.
Links
While some of the brewery sites are Adobe Flash-based fossils (as many are) the Hachinohe site is one of the few with autoplay video headers that I’ve actually liked. Nicely done.
- Original article (Japanese, Asahi Shinbun Digital, 25 June 2019)
- The Aomori Industrial Technology Center (Japanese)
- Hato Masamune (Japanese)
- Momokawa (Japanese/English)
- Sekinoi (Japanese)
- Hachinohe (Japanese)
- Hachinohe (English)