Whisky - UK (2020-05)

18 Whisky Magazine | Issue 167

Japan Exclusive Yasato Distillery

In what may seem like another

irrational move, the distillery kit

was sourced from many different

companies around the world. There is

reason for this madness, though. “We

ƒ”‡„‡‰‹‡”•‹–Š‡⋇Ž†‘ˆ™Š‹•›ǡdz

Toshiyuki explains, “so we want to try

Ž‘–•‘ˆ–Š‹‰•ƒ†⋐†ƒ†‹”‡…–‹‘ǥ

⋐†‘—”™ƒ›Ǥˆ™‡Šƒ†‘”†‡”‡†ƒŽŽ

distillery equipment from one place –

say Forsyths in Scotland – we would

be constrained in our thinking by

that particular set-up and we would

be making whisky in that particular

style, following Scottish practice. But,

we have engineers in-house, and we

have know-how from sake brewing

and beer brewing, so we designed the

distillery ourselves and sourced the

equipment from companies around the

world that, in most cases, we already

Šƒ†ƒ”‡Žƒ–‹‘•Š‹’™‹–ŠǤdzƒ†’—œœŽ‡ǡ

surely? “Yes, but setting up a beer

brewery is much more complex – more

tanks, bottling lines, etc. – so setting up

a whisky distillery is much easier by

…‘’ƒ”‹•‘ǡdz‘•Š‹›—‹Žƒ—‰Š•Ǥ

•ƒ™ƒŽ•—•–Š”‘—‰Š–Š‡

distillery, it becomes clear that rather

–Šƒ„‡‹‰‹””ƒ–‹‘ƒŽǡ–Š‡’—œœŽ‡Ǧ

method was, in fact, the only method

that made sense for what they were

looking to do at Yasato distillery. We

start off in the grain store. “We want

to use grains other than malted barley

as well, so we have a set-up here that

facilitates that: two bag stations and

a separate small feed, and in all three

cases, the grain can either go through

‘—”ˆ‘—”Ǧ”‘ŽŽŽƒ—††‘…‹ŽŽƒ†

into the hopper, or be directed straight

–‘–Š‡Š‘’’‡”ǤdzŠ‡™‡ƒ”‡–Š‡”‡ǡ–Š‡

bags hold malted barley and rice bran

(the bi-product of polishing rice for

sake-making), respectively. The rice

bran doesn’t need to be milled, so that

can be sent straight into the hopper

when preparing the grain bill for

ƒ•Š‹‰ǤDz––Š‡‘‡–ǡdzƒ’‘‹–•

out, “we’re using a grain bill that’s

roughly 80 per cent malted barley and

20 per cent unmalted local wheat, so

in this case, we hand-feed the wheat

through the small feed and mill that

together with the malted barley that is

•‡–ˆ”‘–Š‡„ƒ‰•–ƒ–‹‘Ǥdzƒ††‹–‹‘

to barley and wheat (malted and

unmalted) and rice bran (which they

are getting from their sake brewery),

the team at Yasato distillery is also

planning to use local buckwheat and

they’re talking to a potential corn

supplier up in Hokkaido. “Tomorrow,

™‡Šƒ˜‡ƒ„‹–‘ˆ’‡ƒ–‡†ƒŽ–…‘‹‰‹ǡdz

Sam says, “but we won’t go further than

lightly-peated. Just like we don’t have a

ridiculously hoppy beer in our portfolio,

we are not looking to make a really

’‡ƒ–›™Š‹•›‡‹–Š‡”Ǥdz

The grist hopper has a capacity of

ͳǤ͸–‘‡•ǡ„—–•–ƒ†ƒ”†„ƒ–…Š•‹œ‡ƒ–

Yasato distillery is 1.2 tonnes, which

results in around 6,000 litres of wort.

“This probably has to do with the fact

that everything at our beer brewery is

designed for 6,000 litres or multiples of

–Šƒ–ǡdzƒ”‡ƒ”•Ǥ–Š‡ƒ•Š”‘‘ǡ

there are two tuns: a mashtun, made

Keen to show our readers the very

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