Sake Trivia | 30 facts about the Japanese beverage

Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. It is Japan´s national beverage.

Let´s find out more about sake!

1. Sake, also spelled saké is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin.
2. It is made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran.
3. Despite the name Japanese rice wine, sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (such as huangjiu and cheongju).
4. It is produced by a brewing process more akin to that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars which ferment into alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugar that is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes.
5. The brewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, where the conversion from starch to sugar and then from sugar to alcohol occurs in two distinct steps.
6. Like other rice wines, when sake is brewed, these conversions occur simultaneously. The alcohol content differs between sake, wine, and beer.
7. While most beer contains 3–9% ABV, wine generally contains 9–16% ABV.
8. Undiluted sake contains 18–20% ABV (although this is often lowered to about 15% by diluting with water prior to bottling).
9. In Japanese, the character sake can refer to any alcoholic drink.
10. On the other side the beverage called sake in English is usually termed nihonshu (日本酒; meaning ‘Japanese alcoholic drink’.
11. Under Japanese liquor laws, sake is labeled with the word seishu ( ‘refined alcohol’), a synonym not commonly used in conversation.
12. In Japan sake is the national beverage.
13. It is often served with special ceremony.
14. During the ceremony it is gently warmed in a small earthenware or porcelain bottle and sipped from a small porcelain cup called a sakazuki.
15. As with wine, the recommended serving temperature of sake varies greatly by type.
16. Saké breweries have brewmasters.
17. Their official title in Japan is “Tōji.”
18. A brewery’s Tōji is not only responsible for the taste of the brew, but also for keeping his or her team in harmony during the long winter months of work and communal living.
19. The Tōji is a parental figure to his or her team, and will eventually mentor the next potential Tōji in an apprenticeship that can take decades
20. Traditionally, the skills of saké-making are passed down through oral tradition and hands-on-training instead of through schools or books.
21. Some say the origins of saké date back to 4800 BC China.
22. It wasn’t until 300 BC that saké came to Japan with wet rice cultivation.
23. Since then, Japan’s development of the drink has made it synonymous with this nation.
24. By the 1300s, breweries were built that allowed for mass production of saké.
25. The industrial revolution brought machines that did the work once done by villagers’ hands.
26. In 1904, Japan created a research institute to study the best means of fermenting rice for saké.
27. It is now a male-dominated industry, saké-making was once considered women’s work.
28. Spit used to be a key ingredient.
29. Today Koji fungus is used to ferment the rice. But long ago villagers would gather together to chew on the polished rice and then spit its mashed remains into a communal tub.
30. The enzymes of their saliva aided fermentation. Of the various tweaks saké brewing has seen over the years, this is probably the tradition least missed by even its most hardcore connoisseurs.