Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse

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...

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...

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 spelled Gumma)...

Dassai may have reached space first, but Kikumasamune are not far behind. The large Nada brewery has signed a memorandum of understanding with biotech/microscope company IDDK to use its "Micro Bio Space LAB" platform to investigate the effects of the space environment...

On the subject of sake brewery succession and economics... would you like to invest in one? The Nihonshu Capital company has started using an investment crowdfunding site named Securite (セキュリテ) to finance sake breweries and shochu distilleries.  Representative...

What makes a sake brewery successful? What separates the likes of Dassai from breweries struggling to stay in the black? That question took controversial Japanese entrepreneur hiroyuki (founder of 2ch) to venerable Katayama Shuzō in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture. The...

Thought Bordeaux was nothing but wine? Think again! Thomas Oda, originally from Tokyo, took a winding route via Limerick, Dublin and the UK before falling for wine and moving to Bordeaux. Working in the wine industry had also reintroduced him to sake, so when a job...

Hiroshima is famous in the sake world for two things: incredibly soft water and figuring out to brew with it, a low-temperature technique developed by local hero Senzaburo Miura which eventually evolved into what we know today as ginjō style brewing. (While his friend...

As if climate change, economics and surprise tariffs weren't enough, the sake industry now has a new challenge–will it be able to afford the rice it needs next brewing season, if it can even find it?  Japanese households are currently up in arms over the surging price...