By Jessica Furui, Sake Sommelier - Ozumo, SF

Water keeps such a holy place in sake making. And for centuries, brewers didn’t exactly know what it was about the water that made good sake. They just knew that good water made good sake. Only after scientific advancements did they realize that water high in potassium, potash, calcium and magnesium was holier than water without the proper presence of these elements. These minerals provide the necessary nutrients for excellent propagation of koji (Aspergillus oryzae), the mold responsible for converting starch to sugar. These minerals also promote a strong and robust shubo, the yeast starter. These two steps are vital to the rest of the fermentation process. Ultimately, the delicate balance of minerals in water can either make or break your sake.

In the 1840s Yamamura Tazaemon owned two breweries separated by a few miles in Kobe. He brewed the same rice, the same brewing techniques and what he thought was the same water and the sake consistently tasted different. What he didn’t know was that there was a huge expanse of ground water nearly 50 meters below the surface of the Uozaki brewery that had been gently filtered by calcium deposits. Once he brought the water of Uozaki to the Nishinomiya brewery he knew he had found the source of superiority: the water.

With visits to several breweries over my 10 years of sake madness, each time the owner has made a point to show me their water source. Visiting Kamoizumi in Saijo, Hiroshima, Kazuhiro san and I climbed into his circa 1990, red, convertible Mazda Miata for a short ride up the mountain. With the wind in may hair and the smell of the leaves in the air, we came to a sweet little shrine next to a small, humble spring near the side of the road, the source of their water supply. They pumped the water all the way down to the brewery. Even townspeople would come and fill up buckets from the well to take home.

Moss covered ceilings and water droplets glistening from specks of light are the mysterious surroundings of a spring essential to Sawanoi brewery in rural Tokyo. Located several meters from the entrance, this little cave is cold, damp and musty. A great place for pristine water! The brewery is located literally right smack dab next to Tamagawa River, but they don’t use that water because the mineral content is too inconsistent.

Yoshida-san from Tedorigawa brewery in Ishikawa prefecture told me that they believe the water from their well takes about 100 years to get there. He says that it takes that long for the snow from nearby Hakusan Mountain to melt off and seep into the ground water. From the pre-fermentation steps like washing, soaking and steaming, plus all the water used in fermentation, the final product is about 70 per cent water. Here’s a few mind-boggling numbers for you to chew on: if we estimate a very small brewery using about 800 kg of rice in one tank, we then must estimate it takes about 30 times the rice (in weight) of water that is needed for that batch.

With all the great, mineral-perfect water in the sake world, you can bet your bottle there’s bad water too. The presence of iron will discolor the sake and negatively affect the flavor and taste. Another bad boy of water is manganese. It reacts with ultraviolet rays to cloud any lovely, clear sake. Don’t confuse this with nigori, or cloudy sake. Nigori is cloudy due to the residual sake lees left in the final product, not because it is damaged goods. Even left out for just a few hours, or under intense lighting, sake brewed with manganese-laced water has no chance.

The discovery of what they termed Miyamizu, shrine water, catapulted the brewers of the Nada region into sake heaven. They quickly learned the water there could support a vigorous fermentation, creating clean, solid sakes, perfect for the palate of Tokyo. To this day, about one third of all sake produced in the world comes from the Nada region, southwest of Tokyo, six hours by the famous bullet train. They are mainly large-scale productions from what the industry calls O-te, Big Hand. These breweries operate all year round, producing millions of liters a year; a far cry from smaller, regional producers focused mostly on quality and simplicity rather than quantity.

Like Catholics and wine, Shinto monks once brewed sake. Shintoism, a combination of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism meaning “the way of the gods,” is the indigenous religion of the Japanese archipelago. Appearing first around the sixth century, the Shinto religion was essential in many parts of modern day Japan, including different types of fermentation. It seems as though these monks had quite a good time making and drinking sake, because in 1420 the military stepped in an made these activities illegal for them. Just like moonshine here in the states, Big Brother has to get a piece of the pie, so the Japanese governing body started to tax sake. At this point private individuals, mostly wealthy landowners, started making the “water of the gods.” With the privatization of sake production, the government could tax away to their hearts delight.

Sake’s place in the world of Shinto is as apparent today as in was centuries ago. Used along with salt and water, sake is important in purification rites. On the third day of the New Year, sake is traditionally taken to purify the body and spirit. O-miki, holy sake brewed by monks, is consumed at the shrine to bless you with the gods.

Other uses of holy sake find their place in traditional Shinto weddingse But i a beautiful set of three shallow, wide, red-lacquered bowls, sa is poured into all three as they sit atop each othe,the smallest of the three at the top. The bride and groom drink three times from each bowl. Three being an auspicious number in Japan, three times three, even more holy. My hubby says that we will do the Sansankudo ceremony for our wedding when we move to Japan. I guess I can wait.

Another ceremony central to Shinto, kagami biraki, is used when opening a new business, at the start of sporting events, and often at weddings. Translating to “opening the mirror,” the top of a sake cask is hit with a wooden mallet, to reveal the sake below. It is then shared with those present to celebrate and bring prosperity. My personal favorite custom, Tsukimisake, is sake enjoyed under the beauty of a full moon, usually in fall under the harvest moon. Families make special food and lay out to enjoy the beauty of the moonshine. It is said that if a maiden drinks sake in which the moon has been reflected, she will become pregnant.

Good, often, great water is at the very core of sake production. Luckily Japan has some of the best water in the world, and what better way to use it than to make sake? Being an island nation located on top of a volcanic ring, its mountains have been pushed high into the sky. Due to its location on the globe, it gets to see quite a bit of precipitation. As this water slowly percolates through the hundreds of meters of rock and mineral deposits, it slowly becomes the destiny of many a sake brewer. The next time you go to Japan, make a point of visiting a brewery and you’ll see what I mean. Pride, honor and dedication fueled by great water and insanely great sake.