Green Friendly

Brewing Hokkan Sake Responsibly

At Hokkan Sake Brewing, we endeavor to make the production of sake "green friendly." Under this concept, we strive to do the following:

1.	Utilize all by-products to decrease waste and make the best use of natural resources.
2.	Ensure that "waste water" (water that is necessary for production but is not included in the final product) is free of waste.
3.	Maximize the use of limited resources (energy, gas, etc.) to ensure the greatest amount of efficiency.

RICE AS A BY-PRODUCT

Rice, one of sake brewing's most basic ingredients, is an incredibly useful product in all forms. Although we use only the starch portion (70% in traditional junmai sake and approximately 50% in daiginjo premium sake), there is virtually no waste. The portions that we mill away to brew sake are used as follows:

Rice Hull: The thick outer covering of rice which is removed before the final milling process is collected and used for such purposes as:

Fertilizer
Building materials (to reduce humidity)
Stable bedding

Rice Bran: The layer of protein under the rice hull, is used for a wide variety of products such products as:

Cereal
Baby food
Rice bran oil
High quality rice food products

Sake Kasu: The solid rice material pressed from the liquid sake after fermentation, is protein rich and is used as the following:

Ingredient for making traditional Japanese picked vegetables tsukemono
Amazake, traditional Japanese winter and summer beverage
Livestock feed

WATER AS A BY-PRODUCT

Although water is the number one ingredient for sake, water is also necessary for the production aspects of the brew. We strive to make sure that the water we return to the community is free from detergents and other agents harmful to the natural environment. We at Hokkan Sake Brewing regularly make analysis and work with the City of Tochigi and the Tochigi Prefectural Food Sanitation Association to meet the utmost in production standards and keep our precious part of the planet green.