Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse

As I have received a scanned copy of a newspaper article on the UNESCO listing of "traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with koji" from my 94-year old de facto father in law, I'm going to assume everyone reading this newsletter has heard about it. There are...

I haven't come across a sake x tennis story before, but the puns are strong!  Fushimino, a sake made with the Kyoto sake rice Iwai grown without pesticides or agrochemicals, was presented as a welcome gift to international athletes competing in the Kinoshita Group...

It's not the first time the newsletter has featured FARM8, a Niigata-based business dedicated to regional revitalisation and promotion of local food production in Japan–they developed an innovative small plastic pouch that makes sake easy to carry and enjoy in...

Japanese chocolatier and sake fan Tatsunori Sato (Chocolate Times) has turned to crowdfunding to refurbish an old building owned by Yucho Shuzo, makers of Kaze no Mori, to open a sake x chocolate shop in December 2024. The shop will sell "Kaze no Mori" chocolate, Kaze...

What happens when you let the drinkers design a sake? Kochi Prefecture brewery Suigei (Drunken Whale) found out when they recruited 20 members of the general public for their Nihonshu no Toki Kenkyushitsu project (Sake Time Laboratory, 日本酒の時間研究室).  Recruitment was...

After establishing its interdisciplinary Sakeology Center in 2018, Niigata University now has postgraduate Sakeology courses available to students from the Graduate School of Modern Society and Culture and the Graduate School of Science and Technology.  The centre...

One of the exhibitors at the Milano Sake Experience 2024 held on Sunday 22 September was Massimo Biloni, respresenting the Italian Rice Experiment Station (IRES), a private research centre in northern Italy. As reported earlier this year, they worked with Yanmar, who...

If you subscribe to John Gauntner's Sake Industry News, you'll already know about Moromi Yell, a recent effort to bring sake brewers into the digital age. Although before you get too excited about "digital", it's an Excel sheet developed by the Nagoya Regional...

Mega-brewery Gekkeikan (Fushimi, Kyoto) released a new low-alcohol sake on 23 September 2024. Named "Algo" (Arugo? アルゴ)* and coming in at just 5% ABV, it's marketed as having just 1/3 the alcohol content of standard sake but still being satisfying to drink, with...