It is with this concept in mind, we have been striving to produce a sake which has a rice-orientated clean and crisp flavor.

Shinrai – Our Brand

Shin is the Japanese character for ‘God’ and also bears relation to the name of the area where our brewery is located. Rai is the Japanese character for ‘thunder’ . Our brewery was established in 1716. The origins of the name Shinrai came from the story of a bolt of thunder hitting the brewery but causing no damage, in fact, bad luck has stayed away ever since.
A production scene in the1950s

Gift from Nature

Mixing materials in a tank
Our brewery is located very high-up at an altitude of 500 meters above sea level and buried deep in the mountains, making it very cool and pleasant in the summer, but blanketed in snow in the freezing cold winter ‒ a climate ideal for producing sake. The cool summer makes for an excellent storage environment and extreme cold of the winter is an extremely important factor for the production of sake. Another important factor for the production of sake is Water. We get two kinds of water here. A soft water from a shallow well in the nearby mountainous area and hard water from a deep well at the brewery site. We use two different kinds of water to suit various processes in the course of production.

Our Product ‒ Shinrai

We have been striving to produce a sake which has a rice-focused rich, clean, and crisp flavor. Soft water used to produce sake is good at producing a great taste from the rice but conversely it has an adverse effect on the fermentation process. In utilizing what is known as the ‘soft water brewing method’ ‒ a traditional method known in the Hiroshima area, we have produced sake which has a rich taste by making well-done koji (malted rice). Furthermore, the cold climate surrounding our brewery brings about moderate fermentation, which in turn gives the product a refined clean and crisp flavor. Our main products are varieties of junmaishu (a kind of sake produced only with rice and water as raw materials) by mainly using senbon-nishiki and hattan-nishiski – rice varieties that are locally cropped in Hiroshima.
Cooling steamed rice
A view of the brewery

MIWA SAKE BREWING CO. , LTD.

1930 Yuki， Jinseki-kogen、Hiroshima、Japan
Tel :+81-847-82-0630
E-mail:shinrai@adagio.ocn.ne.jp