Brewing Kinryo

About Water

Wells (Yahata-no-Onyu for Tadotsu brewery and Syouwa Ido for Kotohira brewey)

For sake brewing, we use plenty of water in general.
Not only as a main ingredient of sake, water is used through various brewing process as like washing rice, soaking rice and steaming rice and so on.In Tadotsu brewery, we use 200~300t of water per day.

We have two wells named "Yahata-no-Onyu" for Tadotsu brewery and "Showa Ido" for Kotohira brewery, each.
The water wells up from "Yahata-no-Onyu" has plenty enough amount and is suitable for sake brewing as it contains well-balanced minerals. The well had used to belong to the Kuzuhara-Sho-Hachimangu Shrine where historical over 900 years long and held three wells. As the shrine located in crossing point of the old roads, those wells has been used by pilgrims called "Ohenro (Shikoku Pilgrimage)" for a long time.We were given the one of those wells, then we named "Yahata-no-Onyu".

On the other hand, Kotohira brewery use the water wells up from Mt. Zozu(Osayamazouzusan) where Kotohira-gu Shrine is located. The water of "Showa Ido" contains lower amount of mineral.

In the both wells, water flowing in a very shallow aquifer, 3 to 5 m below the surface of the earth. It is filtered by sedimentary layer where the granite has weathered and is graveled, and it is made into excellent purified water.

About Rices

We distinguish several kinds of rices for our products.

Our breweries are located in the Sanuki Plain. It is a representative plain in Shikoku, which is located between Seto Inland Sea and Sanuki Mountain Range. Managed woodlands or mountains near human settlements in a triangle shape and more than fourteen thousand storage reservoir creates a unique landscape. The Sanuki Plain is suitable for rice cultivation as it is long sunshine time, less rainy, gentle climate, less disaster and good drainage with good soil quality. Moreover, it is in the northern limit of Shikoku, it is severed by the Shikoku Mountain Range, the large temperature difference between day and night result in harvest of rich rice with high density.
Nishino Kinryo has been brewing 'Sanuki no Konpira sake' with this high-quality rice since the Edo period for over two centuries.

Ooseto (Kagawa) ~ Our local sake rice.

The majority of raw material rice used for Kinryo is this "Ooseto".
We are committed to local people, with the cooperation of the agricultural testing center and Kagawa Economic Organization, we repeatedly conducted research and breeded together "Ooseto" varieties.
In Kagawa prefecture, we are striving to produce rice with excellent characteristics by creating cultivation standards with certain suitable sites. We have earned test brewing from early and have established brewing technique suitable for "Ooseto".
We would like everyone to enjoy the sake brewed with Ooseto, which the local farmer cherishly made, as "local taste" "taste of Kinryo" ~ Sharp taste with a mellow aroma.

Yamadanishiki (Hyogo) ~ King of sake rice.

The finest sake rice of all, and is used by brewers when aiming to make the finest sake. Most of the entries to the Japan Sake Awards are brewed with Yamadanishiki as the raw material.
Yamadanishiki is a large-grained shinpaku-mai, pale in colour with a glossy lustre. With a low protein content, excellent water absorption and rice solubility, excellent “haze” penetration into the grain when making koji, there is little cracking during rice polishing and other processes, so handling is exceptionally easy at every stage. This list of its characteristics reads like a definition of ideal rice for sake brewing.
Sake brewed with Yamadanishiki has good flavour and aroma, with fine texture and smoothness, with depth and richness of flavour into the bargain. For all these reasons, it is highly prized across the nation.

Sanukiyoimai (Kagawa)

A new sake rice variety “Sanukiyoimai” was bred by collaboration of Kagawa University, Kagawa sake makers association, JA Kagawa and agricultural experimental station in Kagawa prefecture, and registered in 2009. “Sanukiyoimai” created by a cross between “Ooseto” and “Yamadanishiki”, had a higher number of panicles, higher yield, larger 1000-grain weight and lower protein content in grain than those in “Ooseto”. Also “Sanukiyoimai” had the property of rice for sake brewing intermediate between “Ooseto” and “Yamadanishiki”, and was estimated highly in respect of good aroma and mild taste compared with “Ooseto” and “Yamadanishiki” .