There can be only one (but there’s more)

by | Jun 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan

So, the International Wine Challenge (IWC) sake division. The competition has 10 categories that brewers can enter their sake under, and a trophy for each one. Winners for each category for 2025 are: Futsushu: Hanaakita by Hokushika (Akita Pref) Honjozo: Atagonomatsu...

So, what else is drunk hot?

by | Jun 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan

Moving on from sake and coffee, how about sake and tea? An okan enthusiast and a tea master walk into an event in Paris… and realise how much their respective drinks have in common when it comes to temperature.  Jo Takasaki owns the hot sake bar “Takasaki...

And celebrating #7

by | Jun 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan

Next in sequential number for Kyokai sake yeast is #7, discovered at Miyasaka (makers of Masumi) in Nagano in 1945.  Miyasaka have also announced a “Nanago Summit” (nanago = #7 = 7号) in July (month 7) of 2025, although so far the only event is a special...

Celebrating #6

by | Jun 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan

First of all, a quick recap on the oldest lines of sake yeast – after scientific investigation of what happens during sake brewing started in the early 1900s, an organisation that would later become the National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB, Shurui Sogo...

Craft sake made with what?

by | May 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan

After stepping down as tōji at the Wakaze Grand Paris brewery in the suburbs of the French capital, Shoya Imai returned to Japan and started on his quest to “liberate kōji”–which to him meant breaking away from the set sake-making process where...

IWC 2025 medals announced!

by | May 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan

It’s always interesting to see what happens at the IWC sake division, and even more so for me this year as I was an associate judge! I was going to do a breakdown by prefecture and comment on anything unusual… but there are two entries for Gunma (one...