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Sake Brewery Tour

2018.02.24

While I’ve been at Imayo Tsukasa, I’ve led hundreds of sake brewery tours. People come from all over Japan and the world to see the actual place where sake is made, learn the process of sake making, and taste a wide variety of fresh sake in the same building where it’s made. As of March 2018, the tasting gallery and sake shop has been beautifully renovated. We hope to make the Imayo Tsukasa sake brewery experience more comprehensive and fun than any other brewery in Japan.

When guests came to the brewery, I had them change into some slippers, and then I went over the basics:

What is sake? How is it made? What is the history of the brewery? Then we dove into the good stuff.

I got to show the guests our brewing tank room. This is possibly the most comprehensive tank room display in any operational brewery tour. You can see our most modern thermal tanks, in use for the last 25 years. In the same room, see our green Hourou (enamel) tanks that have been around for over 50 years. Finally, our cedar tank, which is the historical style, is one of only a handful still used in Japan. What makes this so unique, is that all 3 styles of tanks are still used by Imayo Tsukasa in that room, which you are not likely to find on any other brewery tour in Japan.

Guests also got to see the pressing room, where the sake is separated from the sake lees. From there we went to a room that boasts construction that is hundreds of years old.

We learned about Japanese and Niigata history and talked about what makes the different classifications of sake unique.

Finally, we finished off the experience with a comprehensive tasting featuring over 10 different sakes for only 500 yen ($4.70 USD).

If you are in Japan or planning a trip to Japan, Imayo Tsukasa is one of the most comprehensive and interesting sake tours you can participate in. Please come to Niigata and check it out!