Adventures in Small Town Breweries
Last weekend I had the chance to visit a shochu factory. Shochu is an alchoholic drink made from satsuma imo, or sweet potato as we like to call them. It is also made from sugar cane, rice and barley. The sweet potato kind is the most popular in Kagoshima mainland, while lento, sugarcane shochu, is a speciality of Amami Island (just south of here.)
Let me start by sharing my social-life delibitating not-so-secret secret, I hate shochu. I don't simply dislike it, the smell of it is enough to induce my gag reflex. Some people describe it as having a "strong and distinctive flavour", much like a run-down hostel might be described as having "charm." (In my brash and unforgiving to strong smelling liquer opinion.) Unfortunately, it is the drink of choice here, and a proud part of Kagoshima culture. How awful is it that it makes me want to hurl?
So why did I go to the place that creates this, in my opinion, nauseating drink? I did it for the kids! The kids? Yes! Kids and shochu, like peanut butter and jam. See, the kids in my town have this afterschool club, and they have a fundraiser for it. That's right, they are selling alcohol to raise funds for their lil kids club. Not any shochu, oh no, this is the good stuff. Last May these little tykes and their hardworking mothers and fathers planted the sweet potatoes and tended to them until they were ready for harvest. Then, they harvested their crop and took it to the shocho factory where they started the whole potato to drink process. Now, almost a year later, and after 5 months of fermentation, it's bottled, factory labelled and almost ready to sell.
Shochu can be fermented for only a month or two, the fast track to drunkenness, but the 5 month brew is supposed to be better. Perhaps it has a stronger flavour and smell? ><
One more thing to do before they can sell it...they made a special little label, a picture of the kids and parents in the sweet potato field, which has to be hand glued onto every bottle. So on Saturday morning, while the mothers and children went to a heated indoor swimming pool in a town nearby (oddly referred to as a "pic-nic" by my friend that invited me to this whole thing - maybe they did that after the pool?), I went with the fathers and some of their junior high school age sons to the shochu factory.
The entire place smelled like shochu (of course, right? something I did not have the foresight to think about.) Even the glue we used smelled like shochu because instead of using water to mix it, they use shochu! Wow. Besides feeling nauseas for the couple hours we were there, I had a great time. After sitting around with the men and glueing labels, and making faces at the junior high school boys smelling the glue, we got a tour of the place.
It was completely in Japanese, of course, and no one really translated for me. But I think I understand the process about as well as I understand how my office works after being here for a year and half. Here it is:
Step 1 (at the top floor of the bulding) - takes about a day and involves rice.
Step 2 (the floor below) - takes a day or two and involves the rice and hops. it looks like they grill it.
Step 3 (the floor below that) - takes a week or so and involves a large vat of stuff that gets stirred every day.
Step 4 (the ground floor) - the mix is now at 70% alcohol and goes into the fermentation pots.
Step 5 - the pots are covered with wrap and you can see the liquid trying to evaporate, collecting on the wrap and then dropping back down into the pot. by pot I mean a huge mother of a pot. it was in a very pretty room with wooden floors and Japanese style lights, the lantern kind.
As you can see, I have a very clear understanding of shochu is made (and how things work at the office.) If you are reading this and don't understand sarcasm then I have no idea what to say to you, except maybe kampai! ("Cheers!")... just as long as it's not shochu.
Okay, I haven't been completely honest, I do like lento shochu. It is the only shochu that I like. It does not have a strong smell and tastes slightly sweet. In no way does the word "pungent" come up when drinking lento. "Really drunk, really fast" on the other hand, goes hand in hand with it.
It must have been really amazing for the fathers to see the bottles come out of the little bottle window after all that hard work. 1 year in the making! From field to factory! So let's drink for the kids! If you wanna buy one, let me know and I'll hook you up. Or if I really like you, you might get the one that I buy, as a present, because there's no way in hell I'm drinking it.
Let me start by sharing my social-life delibitating not-so-secret secret, I hate shochu. I don't simply dislike it, the smell of it is enough to induce my gag reflex. Some people describe it as having a "strong and distinctive flavour", much like a run-down hostel might be described as having "charm." (In my brash and unforgiving to strong smelling liquer opinion.) Unfortunately, it is the drink of choice here, and a proud part of Kagoshima culture. How awful is it that it makes me want to hurl?
So why did I go to the place that creates this, in my opinion, nauseating drink? I did it for the kids! The kids? Yes! Kids and shochu, like peanut butter and jam. See, the kids in my town have this afterschool club, and they have a fundraiser for it. That's right, they are selling alcohol to raise funds for their lil kids club. Not any shochu, oh no, this is the good stuff. Last May these little tykes and their hardworking mothers and fathers planted the sweet potatoes and tended to them until they were ready for harvest. Then, they harvested their crop and took it to the shocho factory where they started the whole potato to drink process. Now, almost a year later, and after 5 months of fermentation, it's bottled, factory labelled and almost ready to sell.
Shochu can be fermented for only a month or two, the fast track to drunkenness, but the 5 month brew is supposed to be better. Perhaps it has a stronger flavour and smell? ><
One more thing to do before they can sell it...they made a special little label, a picture of the kids and parents in the sweet potato field, which has to be hand glued onto every bottle. So on Saturday morning, while the mothers and children went to a heated indoor swimming pool in a town nearby (oddly referred to as a "pic-nic" by my friend that invited me to this whole thing - maybe they did that after the pool?), I went with the fathers and some of their junior high school age sons to the shochu factory.
The entire place smelled like shochu (of course, right? something I did not have the foresight to think about.) Even the glue we used smelled like shochu because instead of using water to mix it, they use shochu! Wow. Besides feeling nauseas for the couple hours we were there, I had a great time. After sitting around with the men and glueing labels, and making faces at the junior high school boys smelling the glue, we got a tour of the place.
It was completely in Japanese, of course, and no one really translated for me. But I think I understand the process about as well as I understand how my office works after being here for a year and half. Here it is:
Step 1 (at the top floor of the bulding) - takes about a day and involves rice.
Step 2 (the floor below) - takes a day or two and involves the rice and hops. it looks like they grill it.
Step 3 (the floor below that) - takes a week or so and involves a large vat of stuff that gets stirred every day.
Step 4 (the ground floor) - the mix is now at 70% alcohol and goes into the fermentation pots.
Step 5 - the pots are covered with wrap and you can see the liquid trying to evaporate, collecting on the wrap and then dropping back down into the pot. by pot I mean a huge mother of a pot. it was in a very pretty room with wooden floors and Japanese style lights, the lantern kind.
As you can see, I have a very clear understanding of shochu is made (and how things work at the office.) If you are reading this and don't understand sarcasm then I have no idea what to say to you, except maybe kampai! ("Cheers!")... just as long as it's not shochu.
Okay, I haven't been completely honest, I do like lento shochu. It is the only shochu that I like. It does not have a strong smell and tastes slightly sweet. In no way does the word "pungent" come up when drinking lento. "Really drunk, really fast" on the other hand, goes hand in hand with it.
It must have been really amazing for the fathers to see the bottles come out of the little bottle window after all that hard work. 1 year in the making! From field to factory! So let's drink for the kids! If you wanna buy one, let me know and I'll hook you up. Or if I really like you, you might get the one that I buy, as a present, because there's no way in hell I'm drinking it.
posted by lucky at
3:14 pm
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