Dojima Sake Brewery is located in Fordum Abbey, a manor house with extensive grounds, including a Japanese garden, a studio for In-house potters to create their works and a tea room under construction.
Mrs Sachiko Purser, a print artist, led us through an exhibition of her woodblock prints in the Manor House, and although not a large collection, there were many interesting stories to tell about each prints.
Mrs Purser used to be a woodblock print artist and I could not hide my excitement as I have sturdied and written essay about Ukiyoe in my Uni days. We were very much artists of the manual work and we enjoy it. Pen to paper, knives to curve the wood... We talked about how recent art require more and more a digital skills.
In the living room with the fireplace lit, hostes of the tea ceremony made cups of tea and served sweets to all the guests. It was very dignifying atmosphere in the calm manner. I learnt about the tea lessons held three times a week at the House. If I lived a bit closer, I would really join the lesson!
I have to mention eveyone in Kimono looked so beautiful. (I couldn't take the photo because it was too solemn. Sorry!)
At the end of the day, we were given a special tour of the sake brewery, which we thought we had missed booking. This year's brewing had not started yet, which was convenient for me as I get drunk from the smell of sake.
A small group of 6 (3 young guests joind us) followed Kumiko san, who is the Marketing Director of Dojima Sake brewery.
During the tour I was struck by how difficult it is to reconstruct Japanese traditional way to produce Japanese traditional food on the other side of the world. I fully understood about the difficulties and differences in food hygiene laws, water and distributions in the UK.
(Left) The rice is very polished and the grains are much smaller than the rice we normally eat.
(Right) This is the koji (bacteria grows on rice) breeding room. Only the Toji (master brewer) is allowed to enter this room. This is where the Toji takes care of the koji for three days and three nights.
Two types of rice are used to make sake. One is Akita Sakekomachi, which is used to ferment the sake, and the other is Yamada Nishiki, which is used to grow the koji. Speaking of Yamada Nishiki, it is very famouse rice for making Sake in Hyogo Prefecture...we share the same hometown! As I was saying so, two of the young people on the tour with us told me they were also from Hyogo Prefecture! They are neighbours, from Takarazuka and Amagasaki, next town to Kobe city. It really is a small world. We were talking about how we miss kasu-jiru, Lees soup!
These are brewing vessels. You can see how large it is to compare with the gentleman, who is really tall! In the each brewing vessel, rice, water and koji are brewed in three stages. This is called San-Dan-Shikomi
Our guide Kumiko san told me she is also focusing the Sake Lees. It will be more interesting aspect of promoting the UK brewed Japanese Sake.
For example, 300 to 400 kgs of Sake leese produced to make 1000 bottoles for Sake. As long as Sake is produced, Sake leese will be produced. So, we can make as many Saka steamed cakes as we want!!!
Finally, we had a sake tasting session. Oh, to compare ￡1,000 per bottle worth of sake!
What a luxury!
I can't tell you how much I regretted to have Alcohol intolerance then! I only had a small sip of the sake I liked best, called "Kake hashi (can be pronounced Ken-Bridge, too)" it means a Bridge to bring together. I brought most of it home with me. I drank it before I went to bed and fell into bed with it. Heavenly! This sake is fermented not with water, but with Dojima, a pure rice wine that has already been made. It was very rich, fruity and delicious. This Kakehashi can age like wines.
From left to right: "Dojima" 2021, "Dojima" 2020 and my favourite, "Kakehashi".
And on the way back, we were allowed to buy a lot of sake lees.
Now I have a fridge full of sake lees, mmmmm💓.
Now, I'm going to make a lot of steamed cake, and then I'm going to make a sweet sake to serve at Ohinasama... Now I have to find some peach petals!
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You can find more about Sake and Sake leese on their website.
Dojima Sake Brewery is starting a tour.
You can apply here!
It's a bit far from Brighton, but from London it's just over an hour away.
The Japanese garden with cold cherry blossoms and snowdrops was lovely💓
