{"id":175,"date":"2020-11-01T20:36:16","date_gmt":"2020-11-01T20:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/?p=175"},"modified":"2021-01-24T20:38:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T20:38:19","slug":"hiyaoroshi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/en\/2020\/11\/hiyaoroshi","title":{"rendered":"Sake meets cheese in November 2020: Two Autumn Sake, Hiyaoroshi."},"content":{"rendered":"

Walter says:<\/strong>\u00a0Last time we presented a summer sake \u2013 even if we were a bit late due to the pandemic. This time we\u2019re pouring two seasonal sake. Some basics: there are three, sometimes four different seasonal sake, and the last one in the year\u2019s cycle, for autumn, is\u00a0Hiyaoroshi<\/strong>. It undergoes just one quick pasteurisation after the brewing in spring, allowing for an expressive liveliness. At the same time it\u2019s also left to mature until fall, making it more gentle and fuller in taste \u2013 both in combination pairs well with autumnal cooking and mood.<\/p>\n

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Our first candidate comes from\u00a0Gokyo<\/strong>, a brewery founded in 1871 in the southern part of Japan\u2019s main island Honshu. They are using water from the Nishiki river\u2019s underground section, which is even softer than Japan\u2019s generally quite soft water. That makes the sake very velvety, though it also presents a real challenge to the master brewer. Water altogether is an essential factor because it makes up to 80 percent of sake and is also used for cleaning and steaming the rice.<\/p>\n

At Gokyo they use regionally produced rice and try to combine traditional and modern brewing methods. On one hand there is computer-controlled measuring technology, on the other Gokyo is one of the few breweries to reintroduce the challenging fermentation in wooden barrels for some of their sakes. The synergy of high and low tech allows for novel aromas without the need for new yeast or koji strands. This Junmai Hiyaoroshi was matured in tank and pasteurised once, after bottling. The brewery recommends pairing it with grilled mackerel, shiitake and other mushrooms, aubergine with miso sauce, but also fried lotus root.<\/p>\n

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Brewery: Gokyo
\nName: Junmai Hiyaoroshi
\nType: Junmai
\nAlc.: 15 %
\nSMV: +2
\nRPR: 60%
\nAcidity: 1.9
\nAmino acid: 1.5
\nRice: Nihonbanare, Yamada Nishiki
\nPrefecture: Yamaguchi<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Heinzelcheese says:<\/strong>\u00a0Indeed, all of this is well reflected in the glass. Soft and round and almondy, this sake really caresses tongue and palate! Because Walter told me that autumn sake on principle are served with mushroom dishes, my cheese obsessed mind immediately thought of fungi in form of cheese, our small blue-green-grey friends\u2026\u00a0Roquefort<\/strong>\u00a0from southwest France (in this case particularly good stuff from Maison Carles) tastes salty \u2013 it has to, to stand a chance as a soft cheese in this kind of format and size \u2013 and full of umami, due to ripening and the penicillium roqueforti cultures. It does have another, mellow and yielding side though, because the raw sheep\u2019s milk it is made from is an utter concentrate of fat, protein, lactose and minerals. It is this sweetness that permits the two to latch on to each other. The cheese feels in good hands, the sake loves the salt, and together they seem wonderfully weightless, like a autumn leaf in the wind\u2026<\/p>\n

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Walter says<\/strong>: Our second autumn sake\u2019s label might look familiar; in October we introduced you to this\u00a0Senchu Hassaku<\/strong>\u00a0from\u00a0Tsukasa Botan<\/strong>\u00a0in its \u201cnormal\u201d, that is twice pasteurised version. Now we have it as a\u00a0Hiyaoroshi<\/strong>, with the label in autumn colours. Obviously this isn\u2019t a fashion show, but it is really striking how the seasonal element in Japan is reflected not only in cooking, but also in design, art or the presentation of food and drink.<\/p>\n

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Brewery: Tsukasa Botan
\nName: Senchu Hassaku \u2013 Hiyaoroshi
\nType: Junmai
\nAlc.: 17,00 bis17,9%
\nSMV: +8
\nRPR: 60%
\nAcidity: 1.7
\nAmino acid: 1.0
\nRice: Akebono, Yamada Nishiki, Tosaurara
\nPrefecture: Koch<\/p>\n

But even more interesting is learning a bit more about the brewing methods. This Hiyaoroshi ferments very slowly at low temperature and afterwards matures at minus five degrees Celsius. That makes it taste very dry, crisp and precise. It pairs well\u2026 yes, you got it, strong-flavoured bonito sashimi and of course mushroom dishes \u2013 but also Italian dishes involving tomatoes!<\/p>\n

Heinzelcheese says<\/strong>: Fresh autumn air rising from the glass! Complex and deep, with the alcohol carrying the acidity and the acidity carrying the alcohol in the finish, as if both were pushed by the autumnal wind. So here too:\u00a0blue cheese<\/strong>. But a very different one. Made from cow\u2019s milk, soft and creamy, small, less salty, with fungi in and outside. Equally made from raw milk, by\u00a0Edwin Berchtold<\/strong>\u00a0from Schwarzenberg in Bregenzerwald\/Austria. Sleak and crisp in the glass and an almost decadent richness on the cheese board? Yes, and it is an encounter at eye level, full of mutual respect. The cheese\u2019s lushness puts its friendly, understanding arm around the sake\u2019s acidity (after all any cheese contains lactic acid, even if not always obvious) and makes it even more refined \u2013 an improbable, very elegant couple.<\/p>\n

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Walter says:\u00a0Last time we presented a summer sake \u2013 even if we were a bit late due to the pandemic. This time we\u2019re pouring two seasonal sake. Some basics: there are three, sometimes four different seasonal sake, and the last one in the year\u2019s cycle, for autumn, is\u00a0Hiyaoroshi. It undergoes just one quick pasteurisation after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"http:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/?p=160","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sake-meets-cheese","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.umamijapan.de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}