Traditional Japanese Brewing Processes Make More than Just Sake

Earlier this month, UNESCO added “traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with kōji mold in Japan” to its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. While sake is the most famous alcoholic beverage brewed through traditional Japanese processes, however, they can also be used to make drinks like shōchū and awamori, and the seasoning mirin, which are introduced below.

Shōchū

Along with nihonshu, or sake, this is a traditional Japanese alcohol. The largest difference between the two types is that sake is brewed while shōchū is distilled. With distilled alcohol, due to alcohol having a lower boiling point than water, brewer’s alcohol is heated so it vaporizes preferentially to concentrate it, after which it is cooled and returned to liquid form. Another difference is that nihonshu uses yellow kōji mold, while shōchū uses black or white kōji mold.

Shōchū is thought to have come from Siam (now Thailand) in the fifteenth century and been introduced into the Ryūkyū Kingdom (now Okinawa), which had active trade with Southeast Asia. In the sixteenth century, it crossed over into Kagoshima and then gradually spread north through Kyūshū. The main ingredients of shōchū, depending on the climate, are very varied and include sweet potatoes, barley, buckwheat, rice, and brown cane sugar.

Awamori

This is a type of shōchū from the Ryūkyū islands, which is made using a rice-based black kōji mash. It differs from usual shōchū in that long-grained Indica rice is used. This was a traditional liquor of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.

Awamori that has been aged for three or more years is called kūsū. The longer it is aged, the mellower the flavor and the richer the aroma. Bottles that have been aged for 10, 20, and even rarer, 100 years, are known to fetch high prices.

Awamori being stored long-term while it ages. (© Pixta)

Mirin

This is an essential seasoning in Japanese cuisine. It is also genuine alcohol with an ABV of approximately 14%. Buy it at the supermarket and you will be asked at the checkout if you are over twenty years old to verify your age.

Among the various theories on the origin of mirin, one is that a sweet liquor known as miirin was introduced into Japan from China in the Warring States period (1467-1568) and it became established that way. Another is that it was created in Japan when shōchū was added to ancient alcoholic liquors like nerizake, a type of sweet white sake, and baijiu, a colorless Chinese liquor, to prevent them from spoiling. Samurai and wealthy merchants had a preference for them as a luxury alcohol with a subtle sweetness.

From the Edo period (1603–1868) onward, mirin began being used as a seasoning to improve the quality of food, as the sugar in the mirin, along with the amino acids in the soy sauce, enhance the aroma, umami, and glaze in dishes. It was only after World War II though that mirin started being widely used in ordinary households.

The traditional method for producing mirin involves adding kōji and shōchū to steamed glutinous rice and then slowly fermenting the mash for around 30 to 60 days. The price for 500 milliliters is more than ¥1,000. Meanwhile, the mirin that can be purchased at supermarkets for a few hundred yen is made using brewer’s alcohol instead of shōchū and then sweetening ingredients like starch syrup are added to speed up the fermentation process.

Using mirin adds sweetness, umami, and richness to dishes. (© Pixta)

The mirin in a lot of households is not actually mirin, but mirin-fū, a mirin-style seasoning. A one-liter plastic bottle costs just a few hundred yen. This type is made by adding acidulants, flavorings, and artificial seasoning to sweetening ingredients such as glucose and starch syrup, so there is almost no alcohol content. In other words, while it appears to be mirin, it is not.

This mirin-style fermented seasoning has a similar alcohol content to cooking sake of around 14%, but because it includes salt and is therefore not suitable to drink, the liquor tax law does not apply, making it cheaper than actual mirin.

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)