Kenten Jitsugyo, a Tokyo trading company, began distilling at Akkeshi Distillery in Akkeshi, Hokkaido, in October 2016, aiming for whisky like Scotland's Islay malts.1,2,3 It is working to make whisky wholly from Akkeshi, from the barley and peat to the mizunara oak casks.4
In 2010 Kenten, an importer of food ingredients, began planning a distillery after a worldwide boom cut its supply of Japanese craft whisky to export.4,5,6 Test ageing of spirit bought from two other Japanese distilleries began in 2013, to see how the local terrain shapes the flavour.1,5,
Really intense nose. Not my thing, but really interesting!
Founder Keiichi Toita had Forsyths of Scotland plan the plant, train the team and install its stills.1,2,3 It has one 5,000-litre wash still and one 3,600-litre spirit still, both in a straight-headed onion shape.3,10,11 Toita had named Lagavulin, on Islay, as the distillery making the spirit he wanted, and the still shape came out close to its stills.3,8,11 The distillery says the stills are heated by radiators, and shell and tube condensers turn the vapour back into spirit.3,11 Its 6 stainless steel washbacks, the tanks where fermentation happens, were chosen because they cannot be temperature-controlled.3,6,11 In 2020 Whisky Galore reported that fermentation lasted five days, longer than at other distilleries.6 About half its malt was peated then, to a phenol level of 50ppm.6 Its water comes from the Homakai River and, as on Islay, has passed through a peat layer.3,11
Casks age in two dunnage warehouses and racked ones, amid Akkeshi's sea breezes.3,11,12 They hold bourbon, sherry, wine and mizunara oak casks, and a swing from −20°C in winter to 25°C in summer speeds their ageing.3,11,12 The first warehouse was full after a year, so a second went up across from the distillery in 2017.1,5 In February 2018 a third warehouse, with racks for the casks, was finished beside the sea.1,3,13 The distillery expected the sea air there to shape its whisky.1,3,13 In April 2020 a fourth warehouse, also racked, went up on a hill overlooking Akkeshi Bay, and a fifth followed in 2022.4,12,13
In 2017 barley growing began in the cool, damp town, thought too hard for barley, with help from the JA Kushiro Ota farm co-op.4 In November 2019 the distillery test-dug peat in a wetland in the town, planning a larger dig to use it in production.12,14 Some of the peat that smokes its malt now comes from Akkeshi's wetlands.12,14 Its malt has been mainly Scottish, and it added Hokkaido-grown Ryofu barley, first from Furano and since 2020 also from Akkeshi itself.5,6 A malting company made its Ryofu malt, but could not make peated malt, as it could not burn peat on site.4,5,6 To fix that, a malt house opened at the distillery in May 2022 to dry its own barley, with a drum malting machine planned for peated malt.4,5,6
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