Weird Ones Vol 3
What is a “weird one”? Very unique process Very unique ingredients A fun/unusual story Nothing else quite like it Sometimes a little intense
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1) EMISHIKI “Sensation White” 2) NIWA no UGUISU Doburoku 3) TAKACHO Bodaimoto “Regal Hawk” 4) KIDOIZUMI “Handshake” 5) TAMAGAWA “Cuvee Sauvage” Junmai Yamahai Genshu > BONUS: TAMAGAWA “Cuvee Sauvage” Vtg 2017 6) TIME MACHINE 2021 TIME MACHINE 2017 Vintage 7) KID Red Rice Junmai 8) TERADA HONKE Genmai 9) RISO NERO Vermuto Sake Italiano Weird Ones: 2023
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DAISEKKEI Junmai Ginjo “Aged in wine barrels” SHIOKAWA “Cowboy Yamahai” OZE NO YUKIDOKE “Bull Rider” 4) OKA BRAND “Japanese Bermutto” 5) HANATOMOE Mizumoto x Mizumoto Taruzake 6) EDO GENROKU 7) HOMARE “Chocolat Nigori” Weird Ones: 2024
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GOKYO Kioke Kimoto “5 Blue” TSUCHIDA “F”- abulous 3) ARIZONA SAKE “Navajo Tea” 4) AKISHIKA “Moto” 5) KUMEZAKURA “Calcis” 6) SHIMA SYSTEMS “Jo-con”
Weird Ones: 2025
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GOKYO FIVE SERIES: FIVE BLUE This would be weird basically anywhere else in the US, we take for granted the fact that this is super yawn normal in Sunflower Five series– all: Kimoto- wild fermented Kioke barrel (local wood) By locals/for locals Local rice (Yamadanishiki, Nihonbare) Polished 55-60% Yeast (Kumamoto KA4) Differ: Dryness, ABV Barrel age Synaesthesic quality
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Tsuchida “F” F as in Fantastic F as in Failure-ish Tsuchida Shuzo, Kawaba Town, Gunma Prefecture
Since taking over in 2007, fermentation-focused Experimental brewing GI Tone-Numata
“During soe phase of san-dan-shikomi, spontaneously a population of lactobacillus appeared. Everyone involved was very apologetic, normally it would have been supplemented with yeast, discarded, distilled. But we let it ferment out and see what would happen. It was a gift from kamisama.”
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“Many best selling products are the result of failures. Because we’re making sake without additives, we never know what might happen at any time, so we ask those who support us to drink our sake with an understanding of this.” Tried to recreate it many times Deliberately infect the batch an isolated strain of lactobacillus Not the same as usual spoilage lactobacillus. This bacteria behaved differently, smelled different Never took. Haven’t been able to recreate it
This was the only batch– Fantastic. Not logical, but special.
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“Is it scary, doing all of this experimentation?” “No, it’s more scary to do nothing and watch the industry fall apart around us. If we didn’t change, we would have closed the brewery.”
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WELCOME TO THE WILD WEST: SAKE COUNTRY, USA
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ARIZONA SAKE NAVAJO TEA Atsuo Sakurai- Yokohama born Agriculture degree -> 10 years as a kurabito Meet-cute tour for future wife Heather Holbrook, Arizona?? Cant open in Japan! So… “This little town, it’s super Southwest but needs sake.” 50% polish Calrose rice
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“Navajo tea is the people’s tea. That plant really represents Arizona, because it grows in the Arizona soil with Arizona sunshine and Arizona rain. So, the sake has an Arizona flavor, I think. Very earthy. It brings about Arizona memories.” “Navajo Tea”: Ch’ilgohwéhí’deí Thelesperma megapotamicum Asteraceae Traditionall used for tea & fabric dye
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“I wanted to work and be more relaxed and free. It’s very boring being in someone else’s business, and I wanted to do what I wanted to do, not what someone in the company told me to do. Sometimes your boss is very crazy, right?”
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秋鹿酒造 Akishika Shuzo
Est. 1886 Founder: Oku Shikanosuke. “Akishika” “#2 metropolis but #1 in food” ~250-300m elevation, mild mountainous terrain 80% forest, 20% rice fields, ~10k population High of 90 in Summer, low of ~20 in Winter Start growing brewing rice in 1985 (Oku-san 27y/o) All junmai since 2004, all closed loop farming since 2012 No charcoal fining, no filtration whatsoever “I’m a farmer who makes sake.”
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AKISHIKA Junmai Yamahai Muroka Nama Moto Like extracting the liquid from a sourdough starter Originally a special order, now popular High concentration of microbes 70% Polish Yamadanishiki 10.4% ABV / 9.0 acidity / -66 SMV
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KUMEZAKURA - THE ARTIST/PHILOSOPHER/FARMER “CALCIS” Calcis: ethnic catharsis” Tottori Yamadanishiki 60% Polish 9% ABV Acidity 18 SMV -50 Kimoto, wild yeast
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OWNER TOJI Est. 1855 Daisen-G Beer ^ Dad’s pride
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Daisen: one of the most important sites in Japanese origin/ religion
Close to Izumo, seat of Shinto mythology
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Avant-garde means being as free as nature. Nature is completely free.
It does not move based on human-like intentions, but rather, many creatures and plants mix together and live as they wish.
I believe that kind of freedom is important.
Music and sake also require freedom! Calcis - the Folk sake- Yamada Nishiki 60% Enjoy a touch of sophisticated avant-garde! Please enjoy!!
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Gods (kami), the land, man & hubris Reminding ourselves of the original role of sake: kami’s pleasure, not man’s pleasure
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JO-CON CRYO-CONCENTRATED SAKE Two versions are made: 17% and 38% ABV Junmai base Aged 6 months in Chinese pottery at ~80F “Speeding up aging” Not really a brewery??
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This jo-con is a concentration of muroka nama genshu at extremely low temperatures (-30C), similar to icewine. Then the sake is rapid-matured in high heat (25C ~80F) for 6 months. ”Since the alcohol content is high, even if it is stored at room temperature, there is no fear of rot or deterioration, and aging progresses over time. Since it has passed the maturation period at high temperature (25°C) even after the concentrated aging process, it is mellow and has a rich mouthfeel without the smell of old sake without feeling the high alcohol content of 38.5%.” 70% polished Hitogokochi junmai #701 yeast +12 SMV 4.1 acidity 38.3% ABV 100ml = $30 USD
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…ALSO THEY MAKE AUDIO AND IMAGE PROCESSING EQUIPMENT/SOFTWARE
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Sake is not something that is “made,” but something that is “cultivated.” It is an agricultural product. Kumezakura sake, along with the wind, water, and air of Mt. Daisen, is like a “crop” rooted in the land, embodying “something that can only be born in this place” without effort or intention.
What he values is “fluctuating taste.” Rather than a design controlled by numbers, it is a process of quietly watching the sake grow while surrendering to the rhythm of nature. Letting it become what it wants to be. Stepping outside the framework of Japanese sake, it connects people, nature, and the memories of the land through fermentation. Kumezakura sake embodies these memories and connections. It's as if the sake itself is the storyteller.
It is an “ethnic catharsis.” “The purification of the mind.” The term “catharsis” refers to the release of emotions that have accumulated in the heart, leading to a sense of purification. Originally, it was a term used in theater studies, derived from Aristotle's theory of tragedy in his “Poetics,” referring to the effect of tragedy in evoking fear and pity in the audience, thereby purifying their emotions. In the field of mental health, it refers to a form of psychotherapy that aims to improve symptoms by bringing repressed psychological states into conscious awareness and removing accumulated emotions. More broadly, it also refers to the sudden resolution of emotional blockages within the mind triggered by some external event.
