Description

Takamine 8 Year Old Whiskey

In 1890 Jokichi Takamine moved to America with a dream. By 1900, this visionary scientist had created medical adrenaline, saving countless lives. In the spirit of friendship, he donated the Japanese cherry trees to Washington, D.C., which still bring joy ot visitors every spring.

One of his earleir experiments used an ancient sake making method to grow Koji spores on barely to create a “maltless” whiskey. It turns out that Koji is better than malting for making whiskey. If not for misfortune, this may have become a style of American whiskey by 1895. Sadly, the original Takamine Whiskey was never released.

Even though Takamine’s project did not bear fruit, it paved the path for us. The shinozaki Brewery & Distillery has over 200 years of experience in using Koji as a sake maker. Through trial and error, we have succeded in distilling his dream into the Takamine Whiskey you now hold in your hands.

Takamine Koji Whiskey is made with the patented Takamine Process, which uses an ancient Japanese mold, koji, to convert starches to sugars in a process similar to malting barley. Unlike malt whiskey where sugars are extracted in a warm water mash before yeast is introduced to start the fermentation, both the koji and yeast are active at the same time in a multiple parallel fermentation. This 100% barley ferment is then double distilled and aged in virgin oak and ex-Bourbon casks.