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AIZUWAKAMATSU | Suehiro Sake Brewery is one of the largest and well known sake breweries in Japan’s Tohoku region, and has been brewing sake since 1850. 8 generations on, Suehiro is still a family run business that takes great pride in the sake it produces. The sake is produced using the traditional “Yamahai” slow open-fermentation method, and has won many awards over the years.
This is one of our favourite sake breweries in Japan, not just because they produce some fantastic sake, but because the tour (which is run every hour) is very interesting, and covers a lot more than just sake. The tour goes through the working brewery, and allows guests to learn about the intricacies of the sake making process, before moving on to a part of the building that holds old equipment that’s no longer used, showing how the brewery used to make sake before technological improvements. Moving upstairs, there are several rooms where many interesting and important meetings and dinners took place – we were very interested to hear the stories about Dr. Hideyo Noguchi (whose picture is on the ¥1,000 yen note), who was close friends with Suehiro’s owners. Finally for camera buffs, the brewery also houses the largest private collection of film cameras in Japan.
At the end of the tour, you can visit the shop, where you can try all of Suehiro’s core range sake, and buy some bottles to take home. Our favourite is the Daiginjo KEN, a light, refreshing, fragrant sake with a nice clean finish. For something a bit different, try the highly regarded Sparkling Sake Poochi Poochi, a slightly sweet sake that is lightly carbonated through a natural second fermentation process. There’s also a small cafe where you can try some interesting desserts that use sake in the recipes.
Suehiro Sake Brewery
12-38 Nisshinmachi
Aizuwakamatsu
Fukushima Prefecture 965-0861
Japan
Telephone: 0242 27 0002
E-mail: n/a
Website: http://www.sake-suehiro.jp/