REASONS FOR SLOW POLISHING IN THE BREWERY Rice polishing is an extremely important first step in sake brewing. We have a rice polishing machine in our brewery. “ Rice polishing should be done gently and slowly. ”This was one of the commitments by our predecessor. It is essential to gently polish the rice so that the rice become uniform and consistent for higher quality. Careless polishing will leave the rice a small amount of sugar on the surface, affecting the flavor of finished sake. Or it may cause cracked rice kernels and irregular water absorption in the following washing and soaking process, which will eventually affect the later nuka production and fermentation process. Since rice generates heat by friction during a rice polishing, time must be taken to keep the rice temperature low. As rice kernels get smaller, they become softer and more fragile; To prevent cracked rice, rice polishing takes even more time as we need to slow down the polishing process to gently polish away the outer layers.

The maximum amount of rice in each polishing is approximately 1,200kg. Generally it takes 7 to 12 hours to polish the koshihikari rice for Futsu-shu (low-grade sake) while it will take 13 to 20 hours, or almost a day to polish gohyakumangoku rice for Ginjo sake (premium sake). We don't always polish rice in the same way; Certain weather conditions during the growing and harvest season affect the condition of rice, and we have to determine the best way to polish. Then we adjust the polishing so the rice is polished right for the type of sake to craft.