Ingredients and how it is made

Basic ingredients most suitable for mirin are carefully selected

Glutinous Rice

Glutinous rice is the essential ingredient for the sweetness of mirin.
Glutinous rice is a variety of rice that becomes extremely sticky when boiled and pounded. It is mostly cultivated to be used as the main ingredient of mochi (pounded rice cake) and accounts for some three to five percent of all rice grown in Japan. Besides mochi, glutinous rice is used as an ingredient in sake (rice wine), vinegar and other foods.

Malted Rice

Malted rice has a major influence on the flavor of mirin.
Malted rice is made from steamed rice in which yeast cells are propagated, and this propagation results in the creation of various enzymes that provide mirin with its sweetness and savoriness.

Shochu (Distilled Liquor)

An essential ingredient of mirin that eliminates fishy odors and accentuates food seasonings and broths.
Shochu is a type of Japanese liquor that is distilled from various ingredients including rice, wheat and sweet potatoes. A special type of shochu distilled from sake lees (solid by-product of the sake making process), called kasutori shochu, is used for mirin.

Mirin is still made today using a time-tested and traditional recipe unchanged from its original conception.

Stock Preparation

To prepare the stock, glutinous rice is steamed in a large kettle to which malted rice is added. Next, shochu is added so that it reaches the moromi state (brewing stock) and then the moromi is transferred to a tank so that it can undergo saccharification through brewing.

Kettle

Malted rice

Stock preparation

Saccharification through Brewing

Saccharification through brewing takes place for about two to three months in a cellar whose temperature is maintained at approximately 18 to 20 °C (64 to 68 °F). During this time, cellar technicians perform kai-ire (stirring with paddles). This is a traditional task that has not changed from its original conception. The moromi is stirred using paddle-shaped bamboo poles and by tracing figure of eight shapes with these paddles so that the moromi is thoroughly mixed and brews evenly throughout.

Cellar

Moromi

Kai-ire

Pressing

After two to three months, the saccharified brewed moromi is stuffed into sake bags and then put through a presser to separate the mirin lees from the liquid mirin. In order to attain the essential mirin flavors and maintain purity at Kokonoe Mirin, we use a traditional Sase-type presser called a fune (bed). At first, the weight of the moromi itself is used to slowly extract the mirin, and then pressure is applied gradually to squeeze the moromi over two days and nights.

Stuffed sake bags

Sase-type presser

Pressing

Maturation

The pressed mirin is stored in a cellar for a year so that it can mature slowly. Then, after the depth of the mirin 's flavor has been increased through maturation, it is filtered so that it achieves the beautiful clear golden color of the finished product.
The flavor profile and characteristics of the mirin is determined by the properties of the natural yeasts and molds present in the cellar. The Kokonoe Mirin cellar was constructed 300 years ago and the unique flavor of Kokonoe Mirin can only be attained by brewing in this particular and special environment.

Inside the large cellar

Outside the large cellar

Mirin

Quality Check

The finished mirin undergoes a strict quality inspection by our taste specialists. Once its quality has been confirmed it is poured into bottles and other containers, and is readied for shipping.

Bottling

Quality check

Finished product

	What is MIRIN?	The nine functions
	Ingredients and how it is made