Hyogo: Small Sake Brewing Facility with Glass Walls Opened in Kobe; Visitors Can View Entire Production Process

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:00 JST, October 26, 2024

KOBE — Visitors can observe a newly established small sake brewery through glass walls at the museum of Hakutsuru Sake Brewing Co. in Kobe. 

The company opened the glass-walled brewery, Hakutsuru Sake Craft, in September. The about 37-square-meter brewery has a room for making koji malt and fermentation tanks. Each of the tanks is equipped with transparent viewing windows. If their schedule permits, visitors can see the entire sake brewing process, from rice washing to pasteurization.  

The brewery is small-scale, and the company is trying to produce new sake and other types of alcoholic drinks by utilizing yeast that has never been used in the past, as well as using different brewing methods. As an inaugural step, the first sake produced at the brewery has been on sale since Oct. 5.   

“We hope this will be an opportunity for visitors to see such rarely viewed facilities and the sake brewing process, and to take an interest in the brewery,” said Mitsuhiro Ban, the executive officer of the company. 

Admission to the museum is free.