Kimoto sake is produced using the original technique of creating the yeast starter mash. Before brewers fully understood the chemistry of creating the necessary yeast starter it was believed that the rice and koji had to be painstakingly mashed into a paste to convert starches to fermentable sugars. This process involved brewers mixing and crushing the rice and koji with long poles in a small vats for hours. The Kimoto method is very labor intensive and requires twice as much time in comparison to modern methods to complete the yeast starter. This method is still used by some breweries today, and results in a more robust, wilder and gamier sake. (Wine/Classification & Attributes)