shochu

INTRO

In episode 64, Stephen takes the show on the road and interviews Chris Anderson-Tarver of Denver Distillery in Colorado.

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyrobotpodcast.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a beer brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

Stephen and Christopher are fascinated by non-traditional shochu expressions.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

Denver Distillery

The Denver Distillery is Denver’s first micro distillery pub. Situated on the ground floor and basement level of a historic hotel, the distillery operates as a tap room of sorts much like a craft beer brewery might operate, but instead of beer you’re served their spirits or an array of cocktails.

Where the kitchen might be in a typical brew pub sits 3 stills. A pot, column, and a hybrid. Chris Anderson-Tarver is the head distiller now that his father has stepped into semi-retirement.

Chris has taken a craft beer approach to distilling, making batches of things that he’s curious about and tweaking his recipes regularly. Their whiskies, rums, gin, and vodka are all well received. And its the vodka that really kicks off the shochu journey.

They’re the only distillery (that we know of) in the US making a sweet potato vodka. Chris was fascinated by their stripping run for the vodka. The single pot distilled sweet potato distillate was fascinating. He wondered if he could make a product out of just that. That’s when he discovered shochu and realized he needed koji.

Kasutori Imo Shochu

The Denver Distillery is set up to make western style grain distillates so its not equipped for koji production. Chris’s research led him to the Colorado Sake Company, who were more than happy to let him use their spent lees, which still has active koji organisms. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Chris cooks his potatoes (not reaching a boil, but steam headed for a full day) and then mixes this with his lees to create a 2 week or so fermentation. These are open fermentations in the basement of the distillery, which has a nice even temperature year round.

The mash is then transferred to their copper pot still and distilled just once to between 45 and 50% ABV. A pretty early cut for a sweet potato shochu, but the lees do some unexpected things to this distillate so he wanted it play it safe.

The distillate is then rested for 3 months before bottling at 40% ABV. Chris found that his local customers found the “traditional” 25% distillate to be too watered down so he bottles at a higher proof.

Tasting Notes

Denver Distillery’s Imo Kasutori Shochu is not a traditional shochu in that we are not aware of a single other sweet potato shochu made with sake lees as the koji source. Chris also uses much more lees than what would typically be used as the koji rice portion of a sweet potato shochu mash bill. In batch 1 he used about 40% lees v. 60% sweet potato and in batch 2 he got it closer to 50:50. The lees really stand out in batch 2 so he is going to dial them back in batch 3, which should be made very soon.

Denver’s Shochu Scene

Denver has in some ways become the shochu capital of Japan. In addition to Denver Distillery, Ironton and Golden Moon both have shochu in their portfolio. Ironton made Colroado’s first shochu with lees from Colorado Sake Company while Golden Moon makes an unusual barley shochu – unusual in that its distilled in a column. But hey, whose complaining? Very glad to see distillers outside Japan paying attention to this historic category.

Kanpai!

EPISODE INTRO

In the 10th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini & Stephen Lyman continue with part 2 of a 3 part series to clear up multiple misconceptions about Japanese shochu. In this episode we explain the differences between Japanese sake and shochu (and awamori). Both of these drinks traditions have a long history and were officially designated as the national liquors of Japan in 2012. They are both uniquely Japanese due to some key similarities, but their key differences make them very different in how we enjoy them.

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyjapan.com/)

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

We are both certified sake and shochu professionals. While we generally prefer distilled spirits, a good sake warms the cockles of our hearts.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode of Japan Distilled, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

Sake and shochu packaging can be deceptively similar both in Japan and overseas. Without the ability to read kanji, close inspection of other elements on the labels becomes vital.

The easiest telltale sign is the alcohol percentage (assuming its written in roman numerals, which is usually the case). Shochu is usually bottled at 25% or higher so if you can find that on the label, you can be confident you are looking at shochu or awamori. Sake is usually under 20% so again if you find those numbers, you are probably looking at sake. However, 20% becomes problematic since both are sometimes bottled at 20% and the legal drinking age is 20 so in those instances it becomes harder to discern.

A few key kanji:

日本酒 (nihonshu) or 清酒 (seishu) – seishu is the official legal name of sake so that must appear on labels. However, on bar or restaurant menus you will more often seen nihonshu written.

焼酎 (shochu) or 本格焼酎 (honkaku shochu) – honkaku shochu is the good stuff as we discussed in the last episode. Other styles will have shochu somewhere on the label even if honkaku is missing.

２０歳 (ni-ju sai) – thi is how “20 years old” will be written on a warning statement so you know this is a false angle to discover what you are looking at.

度 (do) – this is the counter for alcohol percentage so if you see 25度 you are holding a 25% ABV drink (very likely shochu).

Sometimes the ABV will be written in kanji as well so you need to know your counters.

1 = 一

2 = 二

3= 三

4 = 四

5 = 五

6 = 六

7 = 七

8 = 八

9 = 九

10 = 十

Counting is then done by adding up these characters.

十二 = 12

二十 = 20

二十五 = 25

It takes some time to get used to this counting style, but once you do you can start to identify the alcohol percentage and other numbers on labels pretty easily.

Sake Basics

Ingredients: water, rice, koji, yeast, ±brewer’s alcohol, and either commercial lactic acid or lactic acid bacteria.

Production Steps (simplified): Polish rice, wash rice, steam rice, propagate koji, shubo yeast starter, main fermentation, ±add brewer’s alcohol, press, filter, age, ±dilute, and bottle. Pasteurization is often done after filtering and/or after bottling.

Shochu Basics

Ingredients: water, koji, yeast, ±rice, ±barley, ±sweet potato, ±kokuto sugar, ±buckwheat, ±45 other possible approved ingredients.

Production Steps (simplified): wash rice (or barley, soba, or sweet potato), steam rice (or barley, soba, or sweet potato), propagate koji, first fermentation (shubo), steam or roast main ingredients (e.g., more rice, barley, soba, sweet potato, etc.), main fermentation, ±third fermentation with aromatic ingredient, distill, age, filter, ±dilute, filter, bottle. shochu referred to any distilled spirit even after introduction of the column still.

Key Similarities

1. Sake and shochu rely on koji for saccharification of starches during fermentation.
2. Sake and shochu rely on multiple parallel fermentation with yeast and koji simultaneously active during the same fermentation process.
3. Sake and shochu rely on Japanese craftsmanship for premium category products.

Key Differences

1. Sake is brewed and then bottled while shochu is brewed, distilled, and then bottled.
2. Sake can only legally be made with rice as a starch source. Shochu has about 50 approved ingredients depending on how you count them.
3. Shochu is almost always between 20-44.9% alcohol while sake is typically between 13-20% alcohol.

Kanpai!

**Errata: Stephen and Christopher’s weekly “Shochu’sday” livestream has migrated from Instagram to the Japan Distilled accounts on Facebook and YouTube. Please check those accounts for upcoming broadcasts.

In this episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini & Stephen Lyman introduce you to the wonderful world of shochu, Japan’s traditional craft spirit. Most people outside Japan think of sake as Japan’s national drink and are more familiar with Japanese whisky, but shochu outsells sake and whisky in Japan. In fact, more shochu is made in Japan every year than tequila in Mexico. But what exactly is it? In this episode you’ll find out. 

Stephen and Christopher break down the history, production methods, styles, and how to enjoy these truly unique single distilled spirits. It is important to understand that shochu is much more about how it is made than what it is made from, which makes it more like whiskey or beer and less like sake, wine, or rum.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you and are always happy to geek out over these fascinating drinks.

Credits

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyjapan.com/)

Hosts

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that these indigenous Japanese spirits are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a Japanese distillery in Kagoshima every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

They are routinely mistaken for one another (they look nothing alike) in Kagoshima’s famous Tenmonkan drinking district despite neither of them living in the prefecture. They are also both big baseball fans. 

Show Notes

Shochu Styles 

Historically, shochu was made from just about anything that rural fishermen and farmers could get their hands on. However, today honkaku, or authentic, Japanese Shochu is represented by 6 predominant styles, which represent 99% of the Japanese market. The remaining 1% is comprised of over 40 other minor ingredients, which are most commonly aromatics added to a rice or barley fermentation before distillation. Examples of this include green tea, seaweed, mushrooms, ginger, or even milk (both skim and whole milk – not kidding). 

1. Imo – sweet potato shochu, primarily produced in southern Kyushu (Kagoshima and Miyazaki Prefectures). These tend to be rich, funky and the stuff that shochu lovers crave. Some of the most popular brands in Japan are made from sweet potatoes.
2. Mugi – barley shochu, primarily produced in Northern Kyushu (Iki Island of Nagasaki, Fukuoka Prefecture, Oita Prefecture). In Iki rice is used for the first fermentation, in Oita its always 100% barley. Either way it’s delicious.
3. Kome – rice shochu, primarily produced in Kumamoto Prefecture in Central Kyushu. Rice shochu is made all throughout Japan, but if you want the good stuff, you head to Kumamoto.
4. Kokuto – kokuto sugar shochu, produced exclusively in the Amami Islands off the southern cost of Kagoshima Prefecture. While it has notes reminiscent of rum, it’s definitely its own style.
5. Soba – buckwheat, produced predominantly in Miyazaki and Nagano Prefectures. This can run the spectrum from light and clean to deep and earthy.
6. Kasutori – made from leftover sake lees (residual solids), produced throughout Japan. Extracting the alcohol from sake lees allows the waste from distillation to be used as fertilizer.

Within these styles there are myriad variations based on the other aspects of production from the yeast species to the fermentation time and temperature to the distillation type to how its matured after distillation. Needless to say an introduction like this only scratches the very surface of this drinks tradition.

There are many other styles available and some of them are quite special, but they represent less than 1% of the domestic market. We will be exploring these main styles and many others in future episodes.

KANPAI!

Episode Intro

In this first episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini & Stephen Lyman introduce the vital Japanese words needed to explore the traditional Japanese distilled spirits of shochu and awamori. The sooner you remember these first few words, the faster you will begin to understand these fascinating drinks. By learning these few key Japanese words and phrases, you can talk about shochu and awamori like a pro and even make yourself understood in a bar or restaurant in Japan.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode or other Japanese words associated with these spirits, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

Credits

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyjapan.com/)

Hosts

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned about delicious fermentations as a brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

They are routinely mistaken for one another in Kagoshima’s famous Tenmonkan drinking district despite neither of them living in the prefecture. They are also both university professors in their spare time. 

Show Notes

Japanese Words (alphabetical): 

awamori (泡盛) – the indigenous distilled spirit of Okinawa, always made with rice and black koji mold. 

Geographical Indications (GI): officially recognized terroir regions for shochu and awamori in Japan. 

• Amami Shochu (奄美焼酎) – kokuto sugar shochu produced in the Amami Islands. If it is produced anywhere else in Japan it is classified and taxed as “spirits”. This is a Japanese domestic GI. 
• Iki Shochu (壱岐焼酎) – barley shochu produced on Iki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture. Must be made with ⅓ rice koji and ⅔ barley. This GI comes from the World Trade Organization (WTO). 
• Kuma Shochu (球磨焼酎) – rice shochu produced in the Kuma River Valley region of Kumamoto Prefecture. This is a WTO GI. 
• Ryukyu Awamori (琉球泡盛) – awamori produced in Okinawa. This is a WTO GI. 
• Satsuma Shochu (薩摩焼酎 or さつま焼酎) – sweet potato shochu produced in Kagoshima. Must be made using local sweet potatoes. This is a WTO GI. 

honkaku (本格) – authentic, traditional, original.

honkaku shochu (本格焼酎) – authentic shochu, which must be made from an approved ingredient, fermented using koji, and distilled in a pot still. If the shochu you are thinking about buying does not have this word on the label, buyer beware.

imo (芋) – sweet potato.

koji (麹 formally kōji) – aspergillus mold that converts starches to sugars in traditional sake, shochu, and awamori production. The national mold of Japan. Koji is also used to make soy sauce, mirin, miso, and a variety of other traditional Japanese fermented foods and beverages. 

• Kuro Koji (黒麹) – aspergillus luchuensis, or black koji. All awamori is made with black koji. 
• Ki Koji (黄麹) – aspergillus oryzae, or yellow koji. Nearly all sake is made with yellow koji. 
• Shiro Koji (白麹) – aspergillus kawachi, or white koji. Most shochu is made with white koji. This is a mutation of black koji.  

kokuto (黒糖) – traditional, unrefined Japanese sugar. Most famously produced in the Amami Islands. 

kanpai (乾杯) – Traditional Japanese “cheers”, literally means “empty your glass.” 

kome or mai (米) – rice. Kome is used on its own, but mai is used when the word follows another word as in the example of tai mai (タイ米 Thai rice). 

mugi (麦) – barley. Often mistranslated as wheat, but mugi shochu is almost always made from 2 or 6 row barley, not wheat. 

shochu (焼酎 formally shōchū) – the indigenous distilled spirit of Japan, most commonly made from sweet potatoes, barley, rice, kokuto sugar, or buckwheat. 

soba (蕎麦, そば) – buckwheat. 

KANPAI!