Juicy, mouthwatering, and laden with tropical brown sugar and toffee notes, this one of a kind sake is channeling big pineapple-miso upside-down cake energy.
Hiraizumi no. 77 is one of the experimental brews from this ancient brewery which was founded in 1487. Kyokai kobo #77, Brewery association yeast #77, produces high amounts of acidity-- especially malic acid, making this sake downright juicy. A bit of residual sugar balances that high acidity and gives the brew a much fuller body and presence than it might otherwise have.
Stats:
- Akita prefecture
- Brewery: Hiraizumi Honpo
- Rice: Akita Sake Komachi
- Seimaibuai (rice polishing ratio): 50-60%
- Brewing starter: Yamahai
- Yeast: Kyokai Kobo #77
- SMV: +15
- Acidity: 3.0
- ABV: 16%
Brewery:
On the Southern coast of Akita, hundreds of miles from practically anything else, Hiraizuimi has been brewing sake since 1487. They are the 3rd oldest brewery in Japan, and the oldest in the Tohoku region. The current head of the brewery is the 26th consecutive generation in charge.
During the Edo period, the town now known as Hirasawa prospered as a castle town of the Nikaho clan, a post town on the Ushu Kaido road, and a port of call for Kitamaebune trading ships. Sake is always in demand in places of industry and economic motion, so Hiraizumi thrived.
Despite the brewery's extraordinary longevity, and with it the weight of 26 generations of tradition and reputation, Hiraizumi belongs to an intellectual moment in Akita that is focused on innovation, quality and local ingredients. As a result, today's Hiraizumi is novel, exciting, and to old-fashioned tastes, unwelcome.