Wineshark Japan Journey - Inaba Shuzo 稲葉酒造

Inaba Shuzo 稲葉酒造 is a sake brewery located at the foot of Mt. Tsukuba, now under their 13^th generation. In 1867, the 6^th generation owner started brewing Minanogawa 男女川, named after the river flowing between Mt. Tsukuba.

Using the pure water from Mt. Tsukuba, the sake is totally handmade, quite rare nowadays, from rice washing, checking of koji 麹 temperature, to the hanging of moromi (unrefined sake) in bag to allow the drip off drop by drop into Shizuku-sake 雫酒.

The current owner and brewer, Nobuko Inaba 稲葉伸子, is one of the few female brewers in Japan, taking over the family brewery since 2000. She has launched Stella, a premium Junmai Daiginjou with only 7 tanks made each year, winning consecutive gold medals from contests in recent years.

In 2019 she started to use local rice in Mt. Tsukuba to make Stella Sense and planning to only use local rice in future to add personality of the brewery. She also uses different rice polishing ratio every year to determine the optimal ratio depending on quality of the rice.

Address: 茨城県つくば市沼田1485番地

Tel: 029 866-0020