Shiratsuyu Shuzo
COMPANY HISTORY
Shiratsuyu Shuzo is a brewing company established as a branch of “Sagara Brewing” from Sagara Family in 1730 in Kagoshima City. Since then, the Sagara Brewing has changed its trading name to “Shiratsuyu Shuzo Co., Ltd.” in 1960.
The name “Shiratsuyu” is delivered from the seasonal period called “Hakuro (white dew)”. The harvesting season of sweet potato which is the main ingredient of shochu, is the first period of the dewfall through the year.
In order to make the best Shochu, we believe that the most important factor is both high quality ingredients (sweet potato) and the pure water, hence we relocated our shochu brewery to Yamagawa in Ibusuki-City, Kagoshima to enable the production of the best shochu possible.
Yamagawa is located in the southern most area of Satsuma Peninsula and is the region where the sweet potato was originally grown in Japan in the early 17th century. Yamagawa’s soil is very suitable for growing sweet potato, this area is also most suitable because it has many high quality natural water courses (soft water) running from the base of the rich green fields of Mt. Kaimon known as Satsuma Fuji. This water is recognized as one of the Best 100 Sources of Pure Water in Japan by the MLIT (Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and tourism). Shiratsuyu Shuzo adheres to following the tradition of shochu production methods by using high quality sweet potato and pure water.
Products
Shiratsuyu Shuzo Shochu is made from the high quality sweet potato variety called “Kogane Sengan”. It is gently stored and aged for at least 1 year to remove any impurities and to refine the textured quality. These impurities arise common after distillation, this process achieves its special and tasty flavor. During aging, the excess oil caused by the difference of temperature between the tank inside and the seasonal air outside, is carefully removed from shochu by brewers’ human hands. This creates a deep rich flavor that does not exist when produced by the industrial filtration system.