Doburo: a kimoto nigori brewed by a Chiba cooperative

Starting a “brewery for everyone” without a brewery

Sake Shuzo (Sake Brewery) is a workers’ cooperative founded in 2024. A workers’ cooperative is an organisation in which the people who work there put in the capital themselves and also take part in running it. It is based in Tako, Katori District, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, a town known as one of the prefecture’s rice-growing areas. Its aim is to create a “brewery for everyone”, where anyone can freely enjoy making sake. It does not yet have a brewery of its own, however. Until one is completed, it brews with the help of a nearby brewery, and both of these new releases were made at Tokun Shuzo in Katori. This season is its second year of brewing.

90% polishing ratio and kimoto brewing without added yeast

The raw material for “Kimoto Junmai Nigori Sake Doburo” is a heritage sake rice variety called Nakate Shinriki, grown by the members in Tako. It is cultivated without pesticides or chemical fertilisers, using the aigamo duck method, in which aigamo, a kind of duck, are released into the paddy to keep down weeds and insects. The polishing ratio is 90%. The polishing ratio is the proportion of the grain left after milling, so 90% means only the outer 10% has been removed. Premium ginjo sakes often have more than half the grain polished away, so this is a style that retains a great deal of the rice’s flavour.

The yeast starter (the base from which fermentation grows) is made using the kimoto method, a traditional approach in which the starter is nurtured by lactic acid bacteria from the air and the brewery. No cultured yeast was added, and the moromi (fermenting mash) was fermented slowly at very low temperatures over 44 days. The aim was to bring out the rice’s umami fully. The sake is genshu (undiluted), neither filtered nor watered down, and is pasteurised only once, after bottling. It is 15% ABV and comes in a 480 mL bottle.

A second bottling with whole local yuzu

The other bottle, “Doburo Yuzu”, is the same nigori with yuzu added, grown without pesticides in Tako. Yuzu is a strongly aromatic Japanese citrus fruit; the whole fruit’s juice is pressed in, and plenty of grated peel is added as well. It lets you taste the umami of the rice and the aroma of citrus at once. Shipping of both began in stages from 1 July, and they were sold through the cooperative’s official online shop.

Both bottles are in limited supply, and there are currently no prospects of them becoming available in Europe. Even so, the story is worth following. A cooperative of producers who are involved in everything from growing the rice to brewing the sake has parallels with Europe’s cooperative wineries. In Europe, too, sake labelled “Kimoto” or “Nigori”, as well as junmai sake with a high polishing ratio (that is, less polished), has become easier to find. When drinking nigori, gently turn the bottle upside down to mix in the sediment, serve it well chilled and try it with tangy dishes or cheese. It may be a way into the new movements among Japan’s small producers.