by Arline Lyons | Aug 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan
We’ve seen breweries use crowdfunding for everything from limited releases and equipment upgrades to total reconstruction after disasters. Now Nagano Prefecture has raised the stakes with a goal of JPY 2 million to be funded through furusato...
by Arline Lyons | Aug 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan
Much as I hesitate to introduce another existential risk to the sake industry, let’s talk about drinking. As in drinking alcohol at all. A 2024 survey by Hakuhodo Seikatsu Souken revealed that 1 in 3 Japanese respondents never drink alcohol. A Fukuoka beer...
by Arline Lyons | Aug 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan
While most of my activity is based around information about sake in Japanese that has not yet made it into English–this one has! I was honoured to translate a report written by Nami Goto (former head of the National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB) and current...
by Arline Lyons | Aug 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan
Bitterness… is it really always a bad thing? Not according to Toshihiko Koseki, special advisor to the Yamagata Prefecture Brewers Association, who went so far as to develop a special variety of yeast that produces more bitter compounds! An article in Nikkei...
by Arline Lyons | Aug 18, 2025 | Sake News from Japan
Although the worst case scenario of US tariffs of 25% did not come to pass, the increase from 2% to 15% will still pose huge problems for breweries who export heavily to America. President Honda of Kumamoto brewery Chiyosono Shuzō (千代の園酒造) has seen his sake make...
