Pressing Series: Fune
Episode 68. Another week, another sake miniseries! This time around, John and Timothy look at the sake production step known as "shibori" or squeezing the mash in a little more detail. At the end of fermentation, this step separates the freshly born sake from the left-over rice solids. There are a few different methods to make this happen, and this week, we look at the classic "fune" method. One of the most traditional ways to press sake, the fune is a large and long rectangular box into which the brewers stack up fabric bags, known as "fukuro", that are filled with sake mash. Pressing with a board from above, the bags get squeezed and the fresh sake is collected from a spout at the front bottom of the fune box, while the rice solids are held back by the fukuro bags. This is a hands-on and labor intensive way to press sake. For some breweries, they press all their batches with a fune, while other breweries reserve fune pressing for only their more premium sakes. To finish off the work of fune pressing, listen in to learn all about the "Fukuro Punch", which sounds like a yummy cocktail, but unfortunately, is not. If you're interested in learning more about squeezing the mash, we hope you'll stay tuned to our complete shibori series over the next few weeks - but of course, no pressure!