Making a wide variety of sake
Asahara Brewery has its factory in Ogose, Saitama Prefecture. We interviewed Kenichi Asahara, the 5th president.
”About twenty years ago, in the time of my predecessor, we may have been the smallest brewery in Japan. We were only brewing about 9000 liters. Originally, we were making Japanese ”sake” and it’s only about 12 years ago, that we started making liqueurs. Now we are making about 144,000 liters of ”sake” and quite a lot of liqueurs.”
In March 2011, the company was met with a fire disaster, and the warehouse of the headquarters was burned to the ground, and one third of the ”sake” in production process was lost. The warehouse is still being reconstructed. They now make ”sake” in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, and they are making various liqueurs, wine and ”shochu” in the Ogose factory.
The fun of developing new products!
When you look at the product lineup of Asahara Brewery, you will be surprised by the wide variety. The number counts up to several dozens. Apart from their own products, they also undertake production of private brand products of other companies. Also, they are especially committed to the development of various liqueurs.
”Moromi zake”, cider liqueur, ”makkori”, plum wine, ”yuzu” liqueur, low-malt beer… Nakata tried one after the other, and one liqueur especially caught his attention. ”Sayama green tea plum liqueur”.
”I’ve never tasted plum liqueur with such bold green tea flavor. It’s delicious.”
It uses Sayama green tea, and the plums from Ogose, and the taste is a pleasant harmony of fresh green tea and the sweetness of plums.
”When I started making liqueurs, I wanted to make something unusual. Then I realized that the possibility is infinite, and we can make so many kinds of liqueurs. We now make vegetable liqueurs, too. Customers ask me, can you make such a liqueur? and we make anything. It is our motto that we never refuse any requests,” said Asahara laughingly. More and more unique ideas for new products came up, and Nakata’s conversation with Asahara about product development went on and on.
