Weekend Beat: Brewing booze at the office

Let's play a game. I'll say a word and you tell me the first thing that comes to mind. OK, here goes: Ginza.

I am willing to bet that among your first and subsequent associations, "sake brewery" was nowhere to be found.

But that's all changing. In a bid to produce the area's first local sake, Kobe-based Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co. is making sake inside its Ginza office building. The company is using brewer's rice grown on the building's roof to produce the beverage. A company spokesperson says the first test batch should be ready this month.

Why bother? According to the company, with this locally brewed sake, Hakutsuru hopes to familarize more Tokyo consumers with the sake-making process, ultimately putting a dent in the shochu distilled spirits boom.

Ginza's only refined sake brewery is a 26-square-meter space in a corner on the sixth floor of the company's Tokyo office. The walled-in brewery is equipped with a rice steamer, a thermostatic oven, a centrifuge and other equipment necessary for sake brewing. In late February, Hakutsuru obtained a sake-brewing license and began making sake, using about 8 kilograms of rice harvested on the roof. After harvesting, company brewers ferment the rice in glass jars.

The company is brewing 7.2 liters of sake. Because this is a trial run, there are no plans to sell the finished product. However, Hakutsuru plans to brew sake in April, June, September and November. Tours of the tiny brewery will be available and will include sake tasting.

In July 2006, Hakutsuru launched Ginza Style, a showroom in its Ginza office, to distribute information about the company, its coming foray into local sake production and the pleasures of sake consumption in general. The company has also held a number of sake-related events.

Since last spring, the roof paddy has yielded 20 kilos of brewer's rice. Company "farmers" will plant another crop in June.

Asami Oda, deputy manager of Hakutsuru's Tokyo branch, says, "We hope that consumers will come to appreciate sake more by sampling our Ginza sake."

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Hakutsuru Ginza Style is a 1-minute walk from Higashi-Ginza subway station.(IHT/Asahi: March 22,2008)