50 Fun Facts About Sake

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

The outer layers hold the fats and proteins that would give off-flavours; the starchy core is what brewers want.

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

Starch must first be converted into sugar, whereas wine ferments sugar already present in fruit.

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

In beer the two conversions happen in separate steps and separate vessels.

What is the alcohol content of undiluted sake?

Most sake is diluted with water before bottling to around 14 to 16 percent; undiluted sake is called genshu.

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

In Japanese the word sake can mean any alcoholic drink; the law labels the rice brew seishu.

What is the name of the mould whose spores are scattered on steamed rice to make koji?

The same fungus is used to make miso and soy sauce; it releases amylases that break starch into sugar.

Which ingredient is said to affect the flavour of sake even more than the rice?

Yeasts produce flavour compounds such as ethyl caproate and isoamyl acetate; the Hakutsuru brewery lab keeps 400 strains.

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

It ranks first in production among more than 123 varieties of sake rice.

How does sake rice differ from ordinary table rice?

Small or weak grains break during the heavy polishing sake demands.

What effect does soft brewing water typically have on sake?

Hard, mineral-rich water is known for drier styles; iron in water produces off-flavours and a yellow tint.

What is the name of the famous brewing water source in the Nada-Gogo district of Hyogo Prefecture?

Its discovery drew many producers to what is still Japan's biggest sake region.

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

Brewers moved there from inland towns in the 1600s for its water and easy shipping to Edo, which drank 80 percent of its sake from Nada.

What is the three-step process of adding rice, water and koji to the fermenting mash called?

The steps are hatsuzoe, nakazoe and tomezoe, spread over four days, followed by up to ten more days of fermentation.

What is the job title of a sake brewmaster?

The word probably derives from a term for housewives and elderly women who supervised shrine maidens, since brewing was once women's work.

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

Other premium sakes have a small, permitted amount of brewer's alcohol added.

How is ginjo sake fermented?

The method gives fruity notes of apple, banana and melon, best enjoyed chilled.

Which yeast strain, isolated around 1953, gave ginjo sake its apple and banana aromas?

By about 1968 it was in use throughout Japan; ginjo only reached the market around 1975.

What is unpasteurised sake called?

It needs refrigeration and can keep fermenting in the bottle, sometimes becoming fizzy.

What is 'nigorizake'?

It is passed through only a loose mesh, and its rice sweetness is prized.

What is koshu?

Most sake does not age well, but this specially made type can mature for decades.

Kijoshu, developed in 1973 for state banquets, replaces some of the water with what?

The name is trademarked, so non-members of the Kijoshu Association call it saijo jikomi.

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

Because the wood imparts such a strong flavour, premium sake is rarely used for cask sake.

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

It is warmed in hot water for hot sake and poured into small cups; guests pour for each other rather than for themselves.

What is the square wooden box, originally a rice measure, that holds exactly one go of sake?

One go is 180.4 ml; generous servers place a glass inside and pour until it overflows into the box.

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

Pouring for oneself is called tejaku; pouring for each other is shaku, still observed at business meals and for the first drink.

At about what temperature is hot sake generally served?

Chilled sake is served around 10 C, like white wine; high-grade sake is not usually heated because aromas are lost.

What is the ball of cedar leaves traditionally hung outside a brewery when the new sake is made called?

It starts green and turns brown as the sake matures; many restaurants now hang them too.

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

The 'celebration sake' is served freely to all to spread good fortune.

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

Even children take a sip, and in some regions the youngest drinks first.

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

On Children's Day, sake steeped with iris root is drunk to ward off evil spirits.

What is the oldest sake brewing company still in operation, founded in 1141?

Based in Kasama, Ibaraki, it was also the first to sell both namazake and hiyaoroshi.

Which Buddhist temple developed the methods that make it the 'birthplace' of clear seishu sake?

Its innovations included fully polished rice, three-stage fermentation, a lactic starter mash and pasteurisation.

For roughly 500 years from the 10th century, who were the main producers of sake in Japan?

Before that, production had long been a government monopoly.

Which Chinese text of the 3rd century contains the earliest reference to alcohol drinking in Japan?

Part of the Records of the Three Kingdoms, it describes the Japanese drinking and dancing.

How many times did the Tokugawa shogunate restrict sake brewing over rice shortages?

Frequent natural disasters and bad weather kept threatening the rice supply.

Why did the Meiji government push breweries to replace wooden tubs with enamel-coated steel tanks?

Wooden tubs have made a comeback in the 21st century for the complex fermentation they allow.

How many sake breweries were there in Japan in fiscal 1975, compared with 1,845 in 2007?

Domestic production has declined since the mid-1970s even as exports have soared.

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

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

On which date is Japan's official Sake Day, designated in 1978?

It is also called World Sake Day and was set by the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association.

Which country is the largest market for exported sake?

Exports rose 70 percent between 2021 and 2023, yet sake is still just 0.2 percent of the US alcohol market.

What share of sake production is ordinary futsu-shu, the equivalent of table wine, as of 2020?

The rest is premium special-designation sake, of which there are eight varieties.

What is 'doburoku'?

Home brewing is actually illegal in Japan; the result is like a chunkier nigorizake.

What is amazake?

Jizake, by contrast, is simply locally brewed sake, the equivalent of craft beer.

What is the traditional maturation period that 'shiboritate' sake skips before shipping?

The result is a more acidic, 'greener' sake.

What is Japan's home-brew sake tinted pink with red yeast rice called?

Kuroshu, by contrast, is made from unpolished brown rice.

Which two 18th-century European writers published accounts identifying sake as Japan's popular drink?

Titsingh was the first to try to describe how it was brewed.

What is the label term for undiluted sake that keeps its full 18 to 20 percent strength?

Most sake is cut with water after brewing to bring it down to 14 to 16 percent alcohol.

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

The nihonshu-do is derived from specific gravity, so sweeter sakes with more residual sugar sit below zero.

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

The figure is called seimai-buai, and a lower number generally signals a fruitier, more complex and pricier sake.

Who isolated the first Saccharomyces yeast suited to sake brewing in 1895?

The government followed up by founding the National Brewing Laboratory in 1904 to study yeast in detail.