Sake Trivia
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46 free Sake trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This sake trivia quiz covers Japan's national drink, the rice brew that is neither wine nor beer but something with a chemistry all its own. The easy questions cover what it is made from, the country, the cups it is drunk from and whether it is served hot or cold. From there the quiz moves into the brewing: the koji mould that turns starch to sugar, multiple parallel fermentation, the three-stage mash, the yeast that matters more than the rice, polishing ratios, the king of sake rice and the water of Nada. The hard end covers the temple that invented clear seishu, the oldest brewery still running, the Edo brewers who moved to the coast, ginjo's fruity yeast No. 9, the toji brewmasters, junmai and genshu and namazake, koshu and kijoshu, the cedar sugitama, kagami biraki, toso at New Year, Sake Day, UNESCO recognition and the export boom. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry on sake before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Japan, beer and wine quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is removed from the rice by polishing before it is brewed into sake?
The bran
The bran: the more of each grain brewers polish away, the lighter and smoother the sake tends to taste.
Q 02Although it is called rice wine, sake's production process is more like that of which drink?
Beer
Beer: both turn grain starch into sugar first, but beer gets its enzymes by sprouting the grain, while sake gets them from koji mould.
Q 03What is the sake-brewing process called in which starch becomes sugar and sugar becomes alcohol in one vat?
Multiple parallel fermentation
Multiple parallel fermentation: the method is so efficient that sake leaves the tank at close to 20% alcohol, stronger than most wines.
Q 04In the Kojiki myth, how did the god Susanoo defeat the eight-headed serpent Orochi?
Got it drunk, then killed it
Got it drunk, then killed it: a sword he found inside the serpent later became one of Japan's three imperial regalia.
Q 05What is the usual Japanese term for the drink English speakers call sake?
Nihonshu
Nihonshu: the name means 'Japanese sake', because on its own the word sake can mean any alcoholic drink in Japanese.
Q 06What usually happens to sake kasu, the solid lees left after sake is pressed?
Sold as an ingredient for cooking
Sold as an ingredient for cooking: cooks use the lees in pickles and soups, and brewers also distil some of them into shochu.
Q 07At a Shinto wedding, how do the bride and groom share sake?
Three sips from each of three cups
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.
Q 08Which rice variety, first produced in 1923, is called the 'king of sake rice'?
Yamada Nishiki
Yamada Nishiki: brewers prize it because it absorbs water well and dissolves easily during fermentation.
Q 09How does sake rice differ from ordinary table rice?
Larger grains with less protein and fat
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.
Q 10Sake brewers call hard water 'strong water' because of what effect it has?
It speeds up fermentation
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.
Q 11Traditional sake breweries do their brewing in which season?
Winter
Winter: brewers hired farmers and fishermen who were idle after the harvest, and many head brewers still farm in summer and autumn.
Q 12In which prefecture is Nada-Gogo, the largest producer of modern sake?
Hyogo
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.
Q 13Why do brewers add rice to the sake mash in three stages, not at once?
To stop bacteria taking over
To stop bacteria taking over: adding rice gradually keeps the yeast strong enough to dominate, while the batch roughly doubles at each stage.
Q 21What wood is used for the casks in which taruzake is aged?
Japanese cedar
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.
Q 22What is the ceramic flask from which sake is traditionally poured called?
Tokkuri
Tokkuri: for hot sake, the filled flask is simply stood in a pan of hot water until it warms through.
Q 23What is the square wooden box that sake is sometimes served in called?
Masu
Masu: the box began as a measure for rice, which is why a standard masu holds one go, about 180 ml.
Q 14What is the job title of a sake brewmaster?
Toji
Toji: the job is learned through apprenticeship, with a future toji training on the job by watching and doing.
Q 15What does the label term 'junmai' tell you about a sake?
No distilled alcohol was added
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.
Q 16Brewers ferment ginjo sake slowly at low temperatures to bring out what?
A fruity aroma
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.
Q 17What is unpasteurised sake called?
Namazake
Namazake: because its enzymes are still active, it has to be kept in the fridge to hold its fresh flavour.
Q 18What is 'nigorizake'?
Cloudy sake with rice sediment
Cloudy sake with rice sediment: brewers press it through a coarse mesh on purpose, leaving unfermented rice solids floating in the drink.
Q 19What is koshu?
Aged sake that turns yellow and honeyed
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.
Q 20Brewers of kijoshu replace some of the brewing water with what?
Previously brewed sake
Previously brewed sake: brewing with sake instead of plain water leaves kijoshu rich and sweet, much like a dessert wine.
Q 24What is the traditional etiquette rule about pouring your own sake?
You should not; others pour for you
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.
Q 25What is the ball of leaves hung outside a sake brewery to announce the new brew called?
Sugidama
Sugidama: it goes up green when the new sake is made, and by the time it has turned brown the sake is ready.
Q 26What is the ceremony of breaking open a wooden sake cask with mallets at celebrations called?
Kagami biraki
Kagami biraki: the cask's round lid stands for harmony, so smashing it open is meant to spread good fortune to everyone there.
Q 27What is the spiced New Year sake, made by steeping a herbal medicine mix overnight, called?
Toso
Toso: traditionally the cups pass from the youngest in the family to the oldest, so the elders can share in some youthful vigour.
Q 28What is sake offered to the gods in Shinto ritual called?
O-miki
O-miki: once the ritual is over, the worshippers drink the offered sake themselves, sharing a drink with the gods.
Q 29How was kuchikamizake, one of Japan's earliest kinds of sake, made?
Chewing the rice and spitting it out
Chewing the rice and spitting it out: in the anime film Your Name, Taki drinks Mitsuha's chewed sake to reach her across time.
Q 30Why do sake brewers steam their rice instead of boiling it?
To keep the grains from getting soggy
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.