sakamai

Our guest is Yoshiki Yukimachi, the 6th generation brewmaster of Takeno Brewery in Kyoto. Founded in 1947, Takeno Brewery is known for its high-quality sake as well as its innovative mindset. 

Yoshiki’s father, Yoshihei Yukimachi, initiated the transformation of the brewery’s strategy and introduced unique products under the Kurabu brand, which features ancient sake rice. Also, Yoshiki has produced creative products and put Takeno Brewery’s name on the map in the global market. 

Recently, the domestic Japanese sake market has been shrinking due to a number of reasons, including the aging population in Japan and the increase in competing products. Despite this, sake exports have been record-high in recent years, thanks to the efforts and inventive mindsets of sake producers like Takeno Brewery. 

In this episode, we will discuss Takeno Brewery’s unique sake-making philosophy, the award-winning sake that the brewery makes with rare sake rice varieties, the pioneering ways of tasting sake that Takeno Brewery offers at its sake bar, how Yoshiki merges deep traditions and innovative ideas in his products, and much, much more!!!

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Episode 155. Our visit to the American Craft Sake Festival was awash with brewers, but one non-sake booth in particular caught our eye.  Without rice, there is no sake and we had the chance to sit down with Whitney Isbell Jones of the world famous Isbell Rice Farm in England, Arkansas.  Whitney grew up on the farm and tells us the story of how her family discovered Japanese rice varieties and how they eventually became global experts in growing premium sake rice varieties in particular. While us city boys think of space in terms of square feet, Whitney explains how the Isbell rice fields are expansive in size - the largest being up to 90 acres each! In addition to growing specialty sake rice strains for the U.S. market, Isbell Farms will soon have a hand in milling sake rice as well.  It's exciting times for rice and sake in the States and we enjoyed our chat with Whitney about all things short, medium and long grain!   Special thanks to SBANA, the Sake Brewers Association of North America, for organizing the festival and to North American Sake Brewery for hosting the event location.  Look for other interviews from the American Craft Sake Festival in coming weeks!
#SakeRevolution

Episode 151. Everyone knowns that sake is made from rice, but how much of a role does rice variety really play in a sake's taste? We're lucky enough to have a Toji on speed dial!  We phoned up our friend and local sake brewmaster Brandon Doughan, the Toji at New York's first sake brewery, Brooklyn Kura.  We tasted two of Brandon's sakes: their well-loved flagship Blue Door Junmai made with California calrose rice and also an experimental bottling, the "Blue Door on Jupiter", which is a version of their junmai made with domestically-grown Jupiter sake rice from Arkansas.  The recipes  and production are very similar with the only difference being the rice strain itself.  Together with Brandon, let's explore the role of sake rice and taste for ourselves what a difference just a change in rice can make.
#SakeRevolution