Chichibu Distillery - Japan Spring 2008
Chichibu Distillery
Saturday 29th March 2008
Spent the daytime visiting Akuto-san's new distillery in Chichibu, which was utterly fantastic. Then back to Tokyo in the evening for dinner with some of Chie's friends from her university days.
Japan Spring 2008
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| 12:48:27 Seibu-Chichibu station, in Saitama, about an hour and a half from Tokyo. It was then about a 15 minute taxi ride from here to the distillery. | 13:15:03 Our first glimpse of Chichibu Distillery - very exciting! | 13:16:17 Me and Chie with the distillery behind us. |
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| 13:16:49 A close-up on the tell tale pagoda roof - which seems even more appropriate here in Japan. | 13:21:12 The milling room. | 13:21:32 The two types of malt currently in use at Chichibu distillery. |
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| 13:30:48 ....some malt bags. | 13:35:13 A peak into the mash tun. | 13:35:29 Akuto-san explaining what is going on here. |
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| 13:35:55 I think this is the grist hopper. I loved the fact there were bamboo poles here. | 13:36:07 A view out over one side of the distillery - with the wash backs in the foreground, and the stills in the background. | 13:36:16 Actually we weren't entirely sure what these containers were - possibly just spirit vats? |
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| 13:36:22 The mash tuns and still again. | 13:36:26 Underbacks I believe. | 13:41:37 Akuto-san talking about fermentation and the washbacks. |
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| 13:42:48 Apparently these used a slightly unusual (and presumably native Japanese) wood, so had to undergo some special treatment. | 13:42:57 Chie rather liked these clamps. | 13:43:28 Me and Chie beneath the stills. |
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| 13:43:53 No. 3 washback. | 13:47:40 Akuto-san standing between the wash still and the spirit safe. | 13:47:56 The stills were made in Scotland to very precise requirements from Akuto-san. |
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| 13:57:35 Akuto-san and three whisky nerds! | 13:59:02 Close-up on the wash still (seem to have neglected the spirit still a bit). | 14:04:38 My favourite picture of the day - look at the pride and satisfaction in Akuto-san's face here. Fantastic. |
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| 14:05:22 The pagoda roof again. | 14:06:26 Inside the maltings. Apparently they weren't quite ready to do their own malting yet, so for the time being this was more of a store room. | 14:06:35 Looking up in the maltings to the inside of the pagoda roof. |
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| 14:09:18 The barrel room. | 14:09:33 Apparently none of these had been filled yet - they would be filling their first casks in April. | 14:09:46 |
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| 14:11:18 A dark picture of Akuto-san and one of his casks. | 14:13:35 The famous Ichiro's Malt branding here (Ichiro being Akuto-san's first name). | 14:13:43 |
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| 14:17:59 The view from the back of the distillery. | 14:26:14 Back in the distillery - a few more random pictures as we were waiting for our taxi. Here's one of the still again. | 14:26:27 ...and again... |
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| 14:26:49 ...and again. | 14:27:24 Watanabe-san taking a look at some yeast. | 14:28:38 One of the other workers at the distillery (Nabe-san?) stirring the washbacks. |
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| 14:30:06 ...and adding yeast... | 14:31:08 Finally a shot where you can actually see the spirit still as well (not that it looks that much different to the wash still...). | 14:31:14 Same again. |
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| 19:50:54 Later on that evening, back in Tokyo, we met up with some of Chie's old university friends for dinner. A bit of a blurry picture... | 19:51:00 ...and a slightly less blurry picture. | 21:36:56 Junchan doing a Dumbo impression with the menus. |
