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Sake brewery visit: Yamaguchi sake brewery in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima prefecture

Oct. 31. 2024
by Yuki Imanishi

We visited Yamaguchi Sake Brewery in Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture.

We got to know about Yamaguchi sake brewery during the COVID pandemic and have worked with him on several online brewery tours, so this was my long-awaited first face-to-face meeting with him.

Yamaguchi GKK is a sake brewery located in Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, with a long history dating back to its founding in 1643 (Kan’ei 20).

Their signature brand is Kaishuichi, which means “the best sake in Aizu."

For a time, they suspended sake brewing in 2005 due to management difficulties, but after receiving a lot of support and requests, they resumed sake brewing in a new brewery facility of about 200 tsubo in 2007. This new brewery has efficient operation flow with the latest equipment, despite its limited space, allowing them to produce high-quality sake on a small scale.

The head brewer, Mitsuharu Sakurai, also grows rice himself, and is particularly focused on brewing sake using locally grown rice and Fukushima’s unique yeast, such as “Hatsushibori" made with Miyamanishiki rice.

He also participated in a project to send Fukushima’s original yeast “Utsukushima Dream Yeast" into space, and has been working on unique initiatives such as “Aishuichi Tohoku Reconstruction Space Sake Junmai Sake" using the yeast that returned back from space.

We were traveling by bus, but a sudden heavy rain caused traffic congestion and the bus was very delayed, so we arrived much later than the promised time, which was a great inconvenience for the brewery, but they greeted us with a smile and gave us a very detailed explanation.

The brewery was compact, just as we had heard about from the beginning.

Here are some photos:

At the front of the brewery
Inside of the brewery
New equipment at the brewery
PResident of Yamaguchi sake brewery Mr Sakurai greeting us and explaining
Sake bottles at the restaurant

President of Yamaguchi sake brewery also accompanied us to the evening dinner party, and we had a very enjoyable conversation with him with the members who accompanied us.

We were introduced to Kamisakabayashi as a place to enjoy local cuisine and alcohol, where we enjoyed Aizu sake and local cuisine, including sake from Yamaguchi Sake Brewery.

We were also very satisfied with the Kozuyu.

President of Yamaguchi sake brewery and his wife were very kind to us, and we had a great time.