We talked about the heat treatment called "pasteurization" over three topics: history, methods, and bacteria.
However, not all alcohol is heat-treated.
Raw vegetables, raw fish, raw meat... It seems like anything in the world that has the word "raw" attached to it is uncooked, but what about sake?

Previous article: [Tell me what you can't ask now!? Series 19]Fire-lighting Part 3 - Fire-out

This person will explain

Toji shop owner/producer Eri Nakano

Profile

In 1995, he opened the Japanese sake bar "Janapese Refined Sake Bar Tojiya" in Tenjinbashisuji, Osaka. He is active in various fields as a sake critic, seminar lecturer, and lyricist.

● Namazake
Sake that has never been heated between the time it is pressed into the tank and when it is shipped is called unpasteurized sake.
Heat treatment, known as pasteurization, is a process carried out to kill microorganisms such as yeast and enzymes. Not carrying out this process means that the microorganisms continue to live in the sake. Even after bottling, the microorganisms remain alive, bouncing around on the taste buds and creating the fresh taste that is characteristic of unpasteurized sake.

"Genshu," which is sometimes mistaken for the same thing, refers to sake that has not undergone the process of adding water after pressing to adjust the alcohol content and flavor.
Therefore, sake that has never been heated or diluted with water is called "nama genshu" (unpasteurized sake) because it is unpasteurized sake and undiluted sake, while sake that has been heated but not diluted with water is called "genshu."

● Nama-Zokōshu
Sake that is stored without heat treatment after pressing and filtration, and then heat treated before bottling, is called "nama-chozo-shu" (unpasteurized sake) because it is stored in the unpasteurized state.
Storing sake in its raw state means maturing it in its raw state, even if only for a short period of time. This is my personal opinion, but I believe this is a highly difficult process. In reviews of nama-zake, you often see the phrase "it has the freshness of nama-zake," and it is not difficult to imagine that it took a wealth of experience and meticulous data analysis to determine the ideal storage environment to achieve this.

● Unpasteurized sake
After pressing, the sake is filtered, heated, and stored in tanks. Sake that is not heated before bottling is called "nama-zuke sake."
This is the opposite pattern to the "nama-chozo sake" mentioned earlier.

● Hiyaoroshi
Here, we will talk about "hiyaoroshi," which is an essential part of any discussion of nama-zuke sake.
The "oroshi" in "hiyaoroshi" refers to wholesale, meaning to sell products wholesale, or in other words, to ship them. The "hiya" part of the word's etymology is shrouded in mystery.
"Hiya" is often thought of as a semi-raw state that has not been heat-treated before bottling, but let's consider the concept of temperature in the Edo period, when the term "hiyaoroshi" first came into use. During this period, "hiya" referred to anything that had not been artificially heated, and "hiya" meant room temperature. We can understand this as sake that has been heated by pasteurization (heat treatment) being returned to "hiya" (room temperature) and sold.

The original "hiyaoroshi" was made by heating sake brewed from winter to spring, storing (aging), and letting it pass through the summer. When the temperature gradually drops and the temperature inside the brewery becomes the same as the outside temperature, the sake is bottled without heating and shipped.
However, before we knew it, the temperature inside the brewery and the temperature outside had become less important, and it is now common to see sake labeled "hiyaoroshi" when it is still hot and humid. Even so, I think there are many people who associate the scent of autumn with the word "hiyaoroshi."

At breweries where the only heating method is bottle warming, the post-filtration heating process is done after bottling, so the "nama-bottling" aspect is diluted, and the sake is often labeled "Autumn-aged."

● Number of times and timing
There are many types of nama sake, including unpasteurized sake, nama-chozo sake, and nama-tsukuri sake. These differ in the number of times they are heated (called pasteurization) and the timing of when it is done.

Previous article: [Tell me what you can't ask now!? Series 19]Fire-lighting Part 3 - Fire-out