New Brewing Initiatives for Climate Change Impacts

Takasagoshuzo Inc.

Publication date	May 9, 2022
Sector	Industrial and economic activities

Company Overview

Climate Change Impacts

We have been brewing sake by making the most of the climate in Hokkaido, such as using the snow and ice for preservation. However, due to the progressing climate change, the amount of snow covering the tanks for preservation has been decreasing over the years, and it has become necessary to add a new layer of snow to cover the tanks, or the snow will melt during the aging process and part of the storage tanks will become visible.

In the "snow and ice aging" process, the water is poured into the tanks buried in the ground to form ice, then the sake is placed on the ice, and then they get covered with snow to mature for approximately four to five months. The ice and snow has been melting faster each year, making it difficult to maintain quality. This has affected our production of the Junmai Daiginjo “Kokushi Muso” and we discontinued the "snow and ice aging" process. Our "snow and ice dome” production process, in which an ice dome is set up and the pressing process is carried out inside the dome, has also been affected by the climate change in recent years. The temperatures had not been below -15°C and rainfall increased in our production season in February, which caused holes in the ice dome. This made it difficult to produce and maintain the safety in the ice dome and we have ended our production of “Ichiya Shizuku.”

Adaptation Initiatives

Inside the Toma Limestone Cave which is designated as a Hokkaido Natural Monument, the temperature is constantly around 9℃ and the humidity maintains at 80-90%. Utilizing these characteristics of the cave, our new Junmai Daiginjo, "Ryu no Izumi," was developed by storing and aging this new sake in the cave during the winter (Fig. 1). Ryu-no-Izumi is a joint public-private project (*1) that was launched in 2015 by Toma Town, Toma Promotion Corporation, and Takasago Brewery.

As an alternative to the snow and ice dome production, we developed a new brand of ice-aged sake, Asahi Kamui. We store our freshly pressed raw sake in the ice-cold storage (-4 to -5°C) in the brewery (Fig. 2) and pasteurize right before shipping. Asahi Kamui is being marketed as an alternative for our Daiginjo "Ichiya Shizuku," which was discontinued in 2016 because of the difficulties to maintain ice domes due to climate change.

Effects / Expected Benefits

While climate change has had certain impact on our brewing, we have been able to continue our production with the development of unique products: Ryu no Izumi and Asahi Kamui.