46 Fun Facts About Sake

What is removed from the rice by polishing before it is brewed into sake?

The bran: the more of each grain brewers polish away, the lighter and smoother the sake tends to taste.

Although it is called rice wine, sake's production process is more like that of which drink?

Beer: both turn grain starch into sugar first, but beer gets its enzymes by sprouting the grain, while sake gets them from koji mould.

What is the sake-brewing process called in which starch becomes sugar and sugar becomes alcohol in one vat?

Multiple parallel fermentation: the method is so efficient that sake leaves the tank at close to 20% alcohol, stronger than most wines.

In the Kojiki myth, how did the god Susanoo defeat the eight-headed serpent Orochi?

Got it drunk, then killed it: a sword he found inside the serpent later became one of Japan's three imperial regalia.

What is the usual Japanese term for the drink English speakers call sake?

Nihonshu: the name means 'Japanese sake', because on its own the word sake can mean any alcoholic drink in Japanese.

What usually happens to sake kasu, the solid lees left after sake is pressed?

Sold as an ingredient for cooking: cooks use the lees in pickles and soups, and brewers also distil some of them into shochu.

At a Shinto wedding, how do the bride and groom share sake?

Three sips from each of three cups: yet this shrine wedding style is modern, spreading only after the Crown Prince's Shinto wedding in 1900.

Which rice variety, first produced in 1923, is called the 'king of sake rice'?

Yamada Nishiki: brewers prize it because it absorbs water well and dissolves easily during fermentation.

How does sake rice differ from ordinary table rice?

Larger grains with less protein and fat: the starch brewers want sits in a white core at the centre of each grain, which heavy milling exposes.

Sake brewers call hard water 'strong water' because of what effect it has?

It speeds up fermentation: its minerals feed the yeast, but not every mineral helps, since iron in the water spoils the flavour and tints the sake.

Traditional sake breweries do their brewing in which season?

Winter: brewers hired farmers and fishermen who were idle after the harvest, and many head brewers still farm in summer and autumn.

In which prefecture is Nada-Gogo, the largest producer of modern sake?

Hyogo: its coastal breweries could ship sake straight to Edo, today's Tokyo, and most of the sake that city drank came from the region.

Why do brewers add rice to the sake mash in three stages, not at once?

To stop bacteria taking over: adding rice gradually keeps the yeast strong enough to dominate, while the batch roughly doubles at each stage.

What is the job title of a sake brewmaster?

Toji: the job is learned through apprenticeship, with a future toji training on the job by watching and doing.

What does the label term 'junmai' tell you about a sake?

No distilled alcohol was added: premium sakes that do add some use only a little, to pull more flavour out of the mash, not to stretch the batch.

Brewers ferment ginjo sake slowly at low temperatures to bring out what?

A fruity aroma: the fragrant ginjo style took off in the 1980s, once new yeast strains and better temperature control let brewers make it reliably.

What is unpasteurised sake called?

Namazake: because its enzymes are still active, it has to be kept in the fridge to hold its fresh flavour.

What is 'nigorizake'?

Cloudy sake with rice sediment: brewers press it through a coarse mesh on purpose, leaving unfermented rice solids floating in the drink.

What is koshu?

Aged sake that turns yellow and honeyed: it nearly vanished after Meiji tax laws charged brewers as soon as sake was made, so waiting years to sell it did not pay.

Brewers of kijoshu replace some of the brewing water with what?

Previously brewed sake: brewing with sake instead of plain water leaves kijoshu rich and sweet, much like a dessert wine.

What wood is used for the casks in which taruzake is aged?

Japanese cedar: the wood's flavour is so strong it would swamp the subtle taste of premium sake, so brewers rarely use top grades for cask sake.

What is the ceramic flask from which sake is traditionally poured called?

Tokkuri: for hot sake, the filled flask is simply stood in a pan of hot water until it warms through.

What is the square wooden box that sake is sometimes served in called?

Masu: the box began as a measure for rice, which is why a standard masu holds one go, about 180 ml.

What is the traditional etiquette rule about pouring your own sake?

You should not; others pour for you: the custom is to keep an eye on your companions' cups and refill them before they run empty.

What is the ball of leaves hung outside a sake brewery to announce the new brew called?

Sugidama: it goes up green when the new sake is made, and by the time it has turned brown the sake is ready.

What is the ceremony of breaking open a wooden sake cask with mallets at celebrations called?

Kagami biraki: the cask's round lid stands for harmony, so smashing it open is meant to spread good fortune to everyone there.

What is the spiced New Year sake, made by steeping a herbal medicine mix overnight, called?

Toso: traditionally the cups pass from the youngest in the family to the oldest, so the elders can share in some youthful vigour.

What is sake offered to the gods in Shinto ritual called?

O-miki: once the ritual is over, the worshippers drink the offered sake themselves, sharing a drink with the gods.

How was kuchikamizake, one of Japan's earliest kinds of sake, made?

Chewing the rice and spitting it out: in the anime film Your Name, Taki drinks Mitsuha's chewed sake to reach her across time.

Why do sake brewers steam their rice instead of boiling it?

To keep the grains from getting soggy: brewers then grow koji mould on some of that steamed rice and add the rest straight to the ferment.

As sake brewing moved out of Japan's imperial court, who became its main producers?

Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines: they brewed sake to sell, and the methods their literate brewers refined still shape how sake is made today.

Rice-based alcoholic drinks like sake are thought to have first been made where?

China: yet Chinese brewers long relied on moulds such as Rhizopus and Mucor, while Japan's sake makers settled on a different koji mould.

What reason was publicly given for replacing sake brewers' wooden tubs with enamel tanks?

Wood was seen as unhygienic: yet the bigger motive was tax, since brewers were charged on sake that evaporated from the tubs.

How does Japan's sake output today compare with the 1970s?

Far lower: production peaked in the 1970s, yet exports climbed through the 2000s and 2010s as the drink caught on abroad.

What did UNESCO recognise as intangible cultural heritage in December 2024?

The recognition covers the traditional knowledge and skills, not the drink.

What are Japan's sake brewers banned by law from adding?

Sulfites: yet cheaper sakes may add sugar or acids, and when they do, those must be listed on the label.

What does the date printed on a Japanese sake label tell you?

When the sake was bottled: sake has no vintage years, so the bottling date is the best guide to how fresh a bottle is.

What is futsushu?

Ordinary sake with no premium grade: brewers may add far more alcohol to it than to premium grades, stretching yields and keeping it cheap.

What is 'doburoku'?

Home-brew with the mash left in: once common in the countryside, it was outlawed in the Meiji era, and making it at home without a licence is still illegal.

What is amazake?

A sweet, barely alcoholic rice drink: in the classic recipe, koji turns the rice's starch into sugar as it steeps, so the drink sweetens itself.

On a sake label, what does 'shiboritate' mean?

Freshly pressed: it skips the months of aging that mellow most sake, so it tastes brasher and greener.

What gives akaisake, a pink Japanese sake, its colour?

Red yeast rice: despite the name, the rice gets its colour from a red mould rather than a yeast, and that mould tints the brew.

Why are many sake bottles tinted dark brown?

To block UV light that degrades sake: sake left in bright light turns a dull brown and loses the flavour the brewer intended.

Which label term means a sake has not been diluted with water?

Genshu: most sake is watered down a little before it is bottled, so genshu is usually noticeably stronger.

On the Sake Meter Value scale printed on labels, which end indicates a dry sake?

Positive numbers such as +10: leftover sugar makes sake denser, so sweet sakes score lower on the scale and dry ones higher.

What does a rice polishing ratio of 70% on a sake label mean?

70% of the grain remains: the lower that figure, the more rice a brewer needs to make the same amount of sake.