The brewing season is underway and lots of breweries are documenting it online, including some terminology specifically linked to to starting up the brewing process.
Tsuchida Sake Brewery in Gunma Prefecture posted a short video featuring the ubiquitous Woodson rice washing machine, and announcing that their arai-tsuke (洗い付け, “washing-start”) took place on Sake Day, 1 October 2025.
Whereas Hirotake Tajime of Tajime General Partnership (makers of Chikuzen) posted photos of what they call hatsu-arai (初洗い, “first washing”) and hatsu-mushi (初蒸し, “first steaming”).
Ichinokura in Miyagi Prefecture started their brewing year a little earlier, on 25 Sep 2025, and posted a short video showing a Shinto ceremony to bless the steamer being set up for the brewing season, koshiki-okoshi (甑起こし, “waking up” the steamer after the summer).
I’ll dive into foaming yeasts a little more below, but the little machine you see whirring away above tanks to burst the bubbles and stop the foam overflowing are called awa-keshi-ki (泡消し機, “foam remover”). Kikkawa Jо̄zо̄ Brewery in Kanagawa (makers of Afuri) make a special no-added-yeast mizumoto which clearly picks up some foaming yeast from the brewery buildings, so they borrowed an awa-keshi-ki from their friends at Kumazawa Brewing Company (makers of Tensei).
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Tsuchida Sake Brewery Instagram account
Tsuchida Sake Brewery (English)
Hirotaka Tajime Instagram account
Tajime General Partnership
Ichinokura Instagram account
Ichinokura (English)
Kikkawa Sake Brewery Instagram account
Kikkawa Sake Brewery
Kumazawa Sake Brewery
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