Brewery Visit #2

My second brewery tour during my trip to Japan was to Kumazawa Shuzo, makers of the Tensei sake brand, located about an hour and half from Tokyo by bus in the shoreside town of Kagawa, Kanagawa. This small brewery has been in operation for about 150 years and remains the only brewery standing in the shoreside region of Shonan in Kanagawa Prefecture. 

That’s in large part to the work of the sixth generation and current president Mokichi Kumazawa. He’s turned the small, sake-only brewery into a wonderful destination that features a sake brewery, beer brewery, bakery, art gallery, local craft shop, a pizzeria, and a fine dining restaurant.

That all sounds like overkill, but trust me on this, it was not. The small collection of old warehouses encircles a charming courtyard, and most importantly, everything was done well and with the utmost care. If this were in Baltimore, I would be a regular!

We were fortunate enough to have toji (head brewer) Tetsuro Igarashi guide us through the sake brewery. They were winding down their brewing day, but this operation was vastly different from our experience at Masumi, so it was fascinating to see the contrasts and hear from the toji-san himself.

As opposed to a large factory brewery, this brewery was contained to four rooms;

rice storage room, steaming/washing room, a shubo/moromi room with the press below, and a small koji room off to the side.

Since this was a small craft operation, all milling was done off-site. While this somewhat limits the amount of control they have, they trust their millers and it frees them up to focus on other things. He spoke of his pride in the fact that they were producing high-quality sake with a small and dedicated staff with an eye towards regionality. One of his goals, and something they are currently in the process of, was to only use 100% Kanagawan-grown (specifically Shonan region) rice. As the only sake brewery in the region, they really want to highlight and promote the area and its people. Part of this will be to focus on single rice variety sake, using rice like Omachi, that stands out and shows off its earthy character.

Following the tour, we met the brewery president Mokichi-san and had a wonderful omakase dinner at their fine dining restaurant. We also sampled several bottles of their sake and even their beer with Mokichi-san and Tetsuro-san - an amazing experience. While we are (sadly) limited to one single bottling from them in the US market currently, it is a wonderful Tokubtesu Honjozo called Infinite Summer, and we are lucky to have it in the shop for you to try tomorrow!

Please join me Friday 6/2 from 5-7pm

as I guide you through the following

summer sakes featuring Tensei's Infinite Summer:

Tensei "Infinite Summer"

Tokubetsu Honjozo

720ml bottle

Kamoizumi "Summer Snow"

Nigori Ginjo

500ml bottle

Shibata Shuzo "Black"

Yuzu-shu, Junmai Sake blended with Yuzu juice

200ml bottle

Thanks for following along and look out for Part 3 of my journey to Japan where we visit a second brewery in Kanagawa Prefecture:

Izumibashi Sake Brewery

Keep an eye on out for news on our next sake tasting, where I will share my experience visiting another sake brewery in Kanagawa, Izumibashi.



Date TBD - stay tuned!

Kanpai! - Phil Romero