Photo/Illutration Kenjiro Makino, Makino Brewery Inc.’s “toji” master brewer, checks the sake fermentation process in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture. (Eiichi Tsunozu)

TAKASAKI, Gunma Prefecture—A long-established sake brewery here has gone against the grain in the production process but continues its winning ways.

“In the current sake industry, local breweries mainly polish off 50 to 60 percent of the rice grains to produce their flagship products,” said Kenjiro Makino, managing director of Makino Brewery Inc.

He said such products lack individuality and diversity.

“They polish rice too much. Delicious sake can be made without polishing,” he said.

For around five years, Makino has been making sake by polishing off only 20 percent of the rice grains.

Makino Brewery received the Grand Prize in the “junmai-shu” (pure rice sake) category at the 92nd Kanto-Shinetsu Sake Awards hosted by the National Tax Agency in 2021. It was the second straight year for the brewery to win the honor.

Founded in 1690, Makino Brewery has won more than 20 top sake prizes with its Osakazuki brand at events organized by the tax agency and at the Zenkoku Shinshu Kanpyokai (Annual Japan Sake Awards), the country’s only nationwide sake competition.

Makino, 43, became the 18th-generation “toji” master brewer at the company in 2019.

After graduating from the Tokyo University of Agriculture, he learned sake brewing at a brewery in Shizuoka Prefecture before returning home at age 24.

Sake brewers from Niigata Prefecture, home to the most breweries in Japan, as well as Nagano, Gunma, Tochigi, Saitama and Ibaraki prefectures compete in the Kanto-Shinetsu Sake Awards.

Makino Brewery was given the second-best Special Prize in 2019.

“We missed the top spot by a slim margin,” Makino recalled. “I think (we won the 2020 award) as a result of tasting the Grand Prize-winning sake of 2019, analyzing what ours lacked and adding modifications.”

The quality of sake is different each year.

Makino’s award-winning sake produced in 2020 had a comfortable aroma and a soft and rich flavor, but the sake produced in 2021 boasted a gorgeous aroma and a light flavor, he said.

“‘Koji’ malted rice and the way rice is washed are crucial in sake brewing,” he said. “Techniques are evolving with each passing day, and what consumers want is also changing. We have been making all kinds of efforts without fear of failure.”

Rice grains are polished to remove undesired components for sake brewing. But Makino feels that the more the rice is polished, the more unnatural it becomes.

The brewery aims to make its main products with rice grains that have 10 to 30 percent of them polished off.

“In this time and age, a challenge for sake brewing is to achieve diversity. I want to do different things than others,” Makino said.

The outer layers of rice grains contain high concentrations of proteins, fats and other nutrients, so the fermentation process is accelerated if a large portion of these layers remains unpolished.

Different brewing techniques are required to address the situation.

“(Such products) account for only a small proportion of all of our shipping products, but we have had good responses from shops specializing in locally brewed sake,” Makino said.

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