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| - Sake-tasting was the purpose of the Steampunk Society's trip to the Distillery on a sunny Saturday in September.
Book in advance if you're bringing a big group. We had twelve people with us, and two people who didn't make an appointment were able to get in on the same tour. If it's just a couple of you, you can take your chances and see if you can get in as a walk-up. The tour costs $15 plus tax and includes four sake tastings.
No, it's not much of a tour. The old boiler room seems to consist of one high ceilinged stone room, and they've put little dividers and furniture in to separate one area from another. Glass walls keep wanderers out of the actual brewing floor. The guide leads you to a hallway alongside the glass wall so that you can look in while he describes the process and the equipment.
While a couple of their varieties are available at the LCBO, most are not because they're unpasteurized. Buy your bottles here. They're pricey (starting at $12.95 for 300 mL) but even this sake n00b could tell they were far superior to most of the LCBO's other offerings. Keep them cold and try not to store them for too long. (One thing I missed: they were out of nigori, or the cloudy white unfiltered sake.)
In addition to my two bottles of Nama-Nama, I got some salad dressing and a bar of soap both made from kasu, or sake lees. Yes, the leftover goop at the bottom of the brewing process is actually useful -- it's nutritious, surprisingly tasty, and also good for your skin. Finally, a little cup of sake ice cream -- more like a boozy sorbet -- is a nice refresher. You can drop a lot of cash here. I did not look too closely at the pretty ceramic sake sets, for fear of dropping more than I already had.
If you're a home brewer you'll get a real kick out of the chemistry and biology lesson given by the guide during the tour, and other foodies will enjoy tasting some great drinks.
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