Heya friends and sake curious, for this inaugural blog post we get to talk about one of my favorite types of sake, Hiyaoroshi!  To be fair, I could probably say that about every type of sake, but I hope you don’t hold that against me too much.

Hiayaoroshi is a special type of sake that is only released during the autumn season annually.  It’s a wonderfully fun sake that pairs well with rich or fatty fall dishes.  Although each brewery produces their own very unique product, I’ve found that the common themes are generally full but rounded flavors and often a touch of spice in the finish. There is a basic guideline that governs the process and handling of the sake that breweries follow in releasing this seasonal brew, as follows:

1. Made during the previous brewing year
2. Nama-zume – only single pasteurized before storage/bottling
3. Aged during the summer

Let’s take a quick look at how these factors come into play for Hiyaoroshi.  

Although there are a good handful of breweries that brew year-round now, traditionally sake is brewed during the colder 8 months of the year.  Without getting too nerdy about it right now, the main reasons for this were the timing of the new rice harvest as well as needing a cold climate to control the fermentation.  Sake is generally pasteurized twice, once after being pressed and again after bottling.  While each one does affect the overall flavor of the sake, pasteurization helps stop some of the ongoing reactions and makes the sake a little more shelf-stable.  To complete the general Hiyaoroshi flow-chart, and also what makes it a fall season release, the sake is cold-aged during the warm summer months and released early fall.  Not super official, but Hiyaoroshi day is celebrated on the 9th of September, so many breweries choose to release it on this day.

When we combine this recipe, we can get an idea of what to look forward to.  Having only one pasteurization retains a more lively and bright flavor, but having the sake cold aged during the summer allows for many of the rough edges that could be present to mellow out and a few others to develop.  It wouldn’t be sake without grey area – because Hiyaoroshi is not a legal classification of sake, there is room to play with this rubric based on however the brewery feels like it could better represent their style.  Depending on how much liberty they take on their interpretation, you could argue it no longer represents the true spirit of Hiyaoroshi, but that definitely wouldn’t stop me from enjoying some regardless.  

At this time of writing (October 2021) we currently carry 3 different Hiyaoroshi for you to try at Takasei!  Each sake is a seasonal release, and we have other year-round products from these great breweries on the menu currently.