Setouchi Distillery Visit, Part 2: A Former MRI Researcher’s Blueprint — 90% Sherry Casks and a Vision for the Brewery’s 200th Year (Hiroshima, Japan)

2026.10.05

In short: the younger brother behind Setouchi Distillery in Kure, Hiroshima, Japan, is a former MRI researcher from Kyoto University who sees whisky as “designing time.” His blueprint: 90% of casks are oloroso sherry casks, ale yeast and fermentation of 90 to 114 hours, and a start-up cost of just 100 million yen — about 140 casks produced and 60 released a year, all aimed at quality in the brewery’s 200th year. Part 2 of my 3-part report by Mika Tanimoto, owner of Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima.

▶️ Part 1: Kure, Hiroshima — two brothers chasing the lost aroma of old sherry-cask Macallan

An MRI researcher’s “design of time”

It was the older brother who took over the family business,

and it was the younger brother, invited by him, who designed the new pillar of whisky-making.

The younger brother walked a different path from a typical successor.

He is a scientist through and through, who built his career researching medical imaging (MRI) at Kyoto University.

Why did he stand in a distillery and start making whisky?

Because he understands the core of whisky-making as a scientist.

He says:

“Making whisky and MRI research are, in the end, the same thing. It’s about how humans make natural phenomena work in their favour.”

Just as MRI turns invisible information inside the human body into images, he believes whisky-making is about designing “the flow of time itself” — the natural phenomenon of maturation.

Not for short-term sales or trends, he is carefully designing the blueprint of this challenge from an ultra-long-term view: “Will our ideal flavour still be here in 30 years, in the brewery’s 200th year?”

The “flavour foundation” built by a scientific approach

To get closer to the flavour of “old Macallan,” the younger brother builds the foundation of the production process with a scientific approach.

1. Specialising in sherry casks (90% of the stock):

One of the answers he arrived at is “the cask.”

To reach the rich flavour they aim for in the shortest time, they take an unusual, unconventional strategy: 90% of their cask stock is oloroso sherry casks, which bring powerful flavour.

This is the result of putting quality first, even as cask prices soar. (Sherry casks are far, far more expensive than ordinary casks.)

2. Commitment to yeast and time (up to 114 hours):

They also use ale yeast, which enriches the flavour, and ferment for 90 to as long as 114 hours, longer than typical distilleries.

Long fermentation builds a complex, strong flavour foundation, so that the “heavy compounds” captured in Part 1 can turn delicious through maturation.

3. Low investment, high efficiency (a 100-million-yen strategy):

They launched the business for 100 million yen, a fraction of what a typical new distillery costs.

Thanks to this low investment, they can offer their whisky at an approachable price (8,500 yen) while keeping production to 140 casks a year and releases to 60 casks a year.

By not scaling up, the design protects the pace and quality they have chosen for themselves.

What the younger brother is designing is not the next hit product.

Not the next ten years, either.

Whether that flavour will be talked about in the brewery’s 200th year, 30 years from now.

Everything is built on that single standard.

No hurry. No clinging to today’s cash.

I felt the pride of a 170-year-old company.

In the next and final part: “One line drawn by two brothers — an answer, still without a name, growing in Kure”

Don’t miss it 🔔

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Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

[A note from Tanimoto] This article about Setouchi Distillery is based on my own visit, but it also includes some of my personal thoughts and interpretations. Please enjoy it as the musings of one whisky lover.