About Me
Hi, I'm Scott and I'm a small batch soy sauce brewer in Sisters, Oregon. My interpretation takes the traditional Japanese process for brewing and aging soy sauce, and adds the application of some technology from the wine industry to enable me to produce a flavorful, high quality sauce with regional ingredients. It's fresh, light and makes me happy every time I use it.
About Scott
I grew up saying that "food only exists to give condiments texture". I credit my dad for this as our fridge was always full of various bottles and jars of all kinds of flavors, colors and viscosities, from savory to sweet. There was always a kitchen cabinet full of the 'no refrigeration required' oils, vinegars and assorted spices as well. Clearly this stuck with me as my fridge and kitchen cabinets today still reflect a large, diverse and somewhat eclectic mix of the 'magic in a bottle' that are condiments.
Years of cooking, brewing beer, and eating my way through whatever deliciousness presents itself left me wanting to do more with food. Being far too lazy to open a restaurant or run a food truck, I wanted to do something that wasn't easy to do, or widely done. Being a huge fan of both high-end sushi joints and strip-mall Chinese restaurants, I've had my share of soy sauce. Going down the online shopping for soy sauce rabbit hole, I was forced to make space in my kitchen cabinet for a growing collection of soy sauces, of all ages and hailing from many different parts of the world. I was hooked, and have spent the last two years making my own. What you see here is the culmination of my desire to bring what is normally a mass-produced, under-appreciated global condiment to a more local, small scale food enhancement using local-when-possible, organic-when-possible ingredients, fifteen gallons at a time.
My Process
The key to making a great sauce is rooted in the consistency of the process- the right temperature, the right environment, and the right amount of aeration at the right time. As I work for a living (this is my passion but doesn't pay the bills), I needed something that's dedicated to this process and routine. Enter Roy, my saucy automator. He's not a robot of the Bender-esque "bite my shiny metal ass" type. He doesn't have any arms, or legs, and his head unit is separate from his 'body'. What he does best is use a series of air bladders to 'stir' the sauce on a defined schedule, around 1,460 times during the fermentation cycle. If you'd like to get to know Roy a bit better, give him a call at 541-782-7697. He's pretty liberal with sharing his employee discount.
The Ingredients:
Organic Soybeans- Midwest, USA
Rainshadow Farms Organic Soft Winter Wheat- Oregon, USA
East Cascades Well Water- Sisters, Oregon
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
Shoyu Koji- Washington, USA
PROCESS:
72-hour inoculation and incubation in cedar Koji trays
6-12 month aging in salt brine
Regular agitation