Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse

Sake brewing licenses have, in principle, not been issued for decades due to falling demand, leaving hopeful new industry entrants with no way in other than finding a dormant brewery with a licence and acquiring the company. And although there have been a few whispers...

The National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB) have released the English version of their outline of the 2025 Annual Japan Sake Awards (全国新酒鑑評会, sometimes translated as National New Sake Appraisal or similar).  There were 809 entries this year, judged in a first...

Dewazakura (Yamagata) collaborated with a local agricultural cooperative to ferment rice bran produced during polishing and sake lees left over after brewing and use them as fertiliser for almost 6000 square metres of fields growing the prefecture's famous Tsuyahime...

Speaking of everything getting more expensive, industry giant Hakutsuru announced price hikes of between 5% and 18% for its portfolio of sake and mirin on 30 May 2025, to come into effect in October. It said it could no longer absorb higher raw material and transport...

It feels like the price of everything involved in making sake is rising–most noticeably rice, but also fuel and agricultural inputs like fertiliser. And the latest product to undergo a price hike is the Kyokai Yeast produced by the Brewing Society of Japan. The...

Enough about IWC–except maybe to mention that there were Kura Master judges participating in IWC sake division judging this year, so we'll have to see where that goes as well. (IWC sake division judges have historically been barred from judging at any other...

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...

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 no okan"...

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 dinner in...