Visiting Yamakawa Brewery

I had the opportunity to visit Yamakawa Jozo, a tamari soy sauce maker in Gifu.

Since I was going anyway, I put out an open invitation on Instagram and other social media. Fermentation lovers gathered for the tour—some familiar faces and some people I was meeting for the first time.
And with fermentation expert Rich Shih joining us, the tour became even more wonderfully geeky!

Everyone was full of curiosity and eager to learn. Kanako, who will be the next generation to take over the brewery, gave us such detailed explanations that she even said, “I don’t usually go into this much detail!” It was a fantastic learning experience.

The quiz at the beginning, designed for elementary school children, was surprisingly challenging!
One question was:

“What color is soy sauce?”

We all struggled with that one.

What color do you think it is? If you want to know, you’ll have to visit the brewery yourself!

I’ve visited several soy sauce breweries and tamari makers, but I discover something new every time.

At Yamakawa, I was amazed by how much time is involved: two years of fermentation and aging, and another six months for their raw tamari, Kibiki-tamari. Just pressing moromi mash takes three days.

When you visit a brewery, you can hear directly from the makers and discover things you simply can’t learn from books or the internet.

That’s why I love visiting breweries.

So, who’s up for a brewery tour with me next time?