Episode 181. Sake Day, celebrated every year on October 1st, will be here before you know it, and Sake Revolution is here to be your guide! In this special episode, John and Timothy map out the most exciting Sake Day celebrations happening across the country in 2025, from San Francisco’s legendary 20th anniversary Sake Day to exciting events in Boston, Denver, D.C., San Diego, and New York. For devoted sake fans, Sake Day feels like all our favorite holidays rolled up into one, and we can't w...
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Episode 181. Sake Day, celebrated every year on October 1st, will be here before you know it, and Sake Revolution is here to be your guide! In this special episode, John and Timothy map out the most exciting Sake Day celebrations happening across the country in 2025, from San Francisco’s legendary 20th anniversary Sake Day to exciting events in Boston, Denver, D.C., San Diego, and New York. For devoted sake fans, Sake Day feels like all our favorite holidays rolled up into one, and we can't w...
Episode 180. In this episode, we again shine a light on the role of Sake Yeast in our series known as the Kobo Chronicles. “Irradiation” and “mutant” are not typical words you’d find in sake marketing, but Tokushima Prefecture makes it work in promoting their “LED YUME” sake yeast. By exposing yeast to blue LED lights, they’ve created new strains of sake yeast for use specifically by Tokushima Prefecture breweries. The brewers at Narutotai have taken this yeast and made a sake that give us sw...
Episode 179. This week, John and Timothy explore another brand profile: Hououbiden from Kobayashi Shuzo in Tochigi Prefecture. How does a brewery go from the edge of bankruptcy to become a coveted cult sake? To quote Huey Lewis, that's the power of love! This brewery is managed by the rare combination of a husband who is the brewery president and a wife who is the Master Brewer/Toji. The sake they make is etherial and elegant. Today's tasting - the Hououbiden "Asahi Mai" Junmai Da...
Episode 178. In this episode join John and Timothy as they interview Keith Norum. Keith is a well known figure in the sake industry and he has represented the Masumi brand of sake since 2005. Keith tells us his story of getting to Japan and finding his way to the world of sake. What's it like working at a traditional Japanese sake brewery? Keith gives us a peek behind the noren! Together we all taste one of the most popular Masumi sakes in the market outsid...
Episode 177. If we think about sake, usually an image of a glass bottle pops to mind. But if we scratch the surface and investigate a bit more the way that sake is packaged and shipped, there is a world of variety out there you may not have considered! This leads us to one of our series we are calling "Funky Packaging"... think of it as sake beyond the glass bottle. Cups, bags, paks, and today's packaging - the Joto One Cup - a special paper cup that makes sake accessible on the g...
Episode 176. With 2024 over and done, it's time to take a look back at the sake year that was. Join us this week for some casual sipping and some discussion on the highlights, surprises and challenges of this past year's sake adventures. Tim and John both let us know their favorite episodes from the past year and we also take a guess at the most downloaded episode from 2024. It's also the moment of truth to review our "Sake Revolution Resolutions" - Did we achieve our goals? Whatever th...
Episode 175. Join us this week for another wide-ranging sake interview. We are welcoming Lucas Smolic, the founder of the Sake Brewers Guild, to the podcast. Lucas started in engineering but found his way to sake which evolved into a deep passion for sake brewing. This inspired the development of the Sake Brewers Guild with its mission to make learning the skills of sake brewing accessible to all. Among other things, we discovered that the Guild is supporting and conne...
Episode 174. This week we welcome a sake personality from Quebec, Canada to the studio – Mr. Benoit Champagne. With a name like Mr. Champagne, you might well think Benoit was destined for a life involved with sparkling wine, but luckily for the sake lovers of Quebec, he found his way first to Japan and discovered a love of sake, which he now guides breweries to exporting in Canada. Benoit also worked for years as a non-Japanese brewer and export manager at a Japanese sake brewery, which we al...
Episode 173. World Sake Day comes once a year on Oct 1st. For sake fans across the globe, this is our big holiday... think Christmas-4th of July-Halloween all rolled into one! What better way for us to mark the day then with a live recording of Sake Revolution in front of a studio audience and featuring an interview and tasting with our two New York City Tojis: Brandon Doughan of Brooklyn Kura and Shinobu Kato of Kato Sake Works. Our friends and sake fans who attended this live recordin...
Episode 172. "Say Cheese"! If you identify as a curd nerd, join us to explore an exciting new way of pairing with sake! We are joined this week by extra special guest host Myshell who lends her crazy-style palate to our exploration of these pairing possibilities. Listen in as we taste three sakes, each of which has been paired with a show-stopping cheese - each a different style from a different country, no less. Have wine and cheese pairings finally met their match? #SakeRevoluti...
Episode 171. This week we go back to school...again! Timothy's new role as the Director of Education at the Sake Studies Center at Brooklyn Kura is the focus of today's episode. The Sake Studies Center is the new sake school on the block, offering education, tastings and brewery tours for professionals and sake-curious consumers alike at our state-of-the-art facility at Industry City in Brooklyn. It's also a sake community center where other sake educators can bring their classes ...
Episode 170. We were so happy to sit down to chat and sip sake with our friend Ryan Mellinger, the General Manager of the Joto Sake imports portfolio at Kobrand. Ryan explains to us, in an easy to understand way, the intricacies of the complex "three tier system" of alcohol distribution that we have in the States and all that goes into getting fresh and delicious sake all the way from Japan to local stores and restaurants for us to enjoy. Speaking of delicious sake, we also taste an int...
Episode 169. This week, we are returning to our series on sake vessels, but this time looking at sake serviceware in particular. We're focusing in on the Tokkuri, the workhorse carafe used for sake service across the world. Tokkuri carafes can be used to serve sake chilled, room temperature, and to warm it up as well. The materials used to make tokkuri run the gamut from metal to glass to wood, with the most popular being ceramic. However utilitarian, use of the tokkuri come...
Episode 168. We are off to explore the sake scene in another region of Japan! This time it is beautiful Oita Prefecture! As we don't know much about Oita, despite there being 33 sake breweries there, we needed to phone-a-friend. Luckily for us, our buddy Chris Johnson (aka The Sake Ninja) lived for 3 years in rural Oita on the Jet program. Chris gets us up to speed on the charms of Oita as well as the local customs and food culture. We also hear tales of Onsen that are...
Episode 167. If we think about sake, usually an image of a glass bottle pops to mind. But if we scratch the surface and investigate a bit more the way that sake is packaged and shipped, there is a world of variety out there you may not have considered! This leads us to our latest series we are calling "Funky Packaging"... think of it as sake beyond the glass bottle. Cups, bags, paks, and today's packaging - the Kikusui Funaguchi "Smart Pouch". It's kinda like a Capri Sun and...
Episode 166. If we think about sake, usually an image of a glass bottle pops to mind. But if we scratch the surface of exploring how sake is packaged and shipped, there is a world of variety out there you may not have considered! This leads us to our latest series we are calling "Funky Packaging" - think of it as sake beyond the glass bottle. Cups, bags, pouches, and today's inaugural packaging - the Tetra Pak Juice Box. Could this form factor we know from our school lunchbo...
Episode 165. If you hear the term "CEL-24" and the first thing you think of is prison, and not a sake yeast, I don't think anyone would blame you. But today we're here to spread the word on CEL-24 sake yeast and it's role in bringing us some of the most fruit-driven sake aromas on the planet. Developed in Kochi prefecture in the 90's, CEL-24 was a response to the market demands for more aromatic and fruity sake styles. And after tasting a CEL-24 sake for ourselves, we can say that...
Episode 164. On New Year's Day, 2024, the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture was the epicenter of a major earthquake measuring a 7.6 on the Richter scale. The affected areas are especially well known for sake brewing and in Ishikawa in particular, 24 out of 33 Ishikawa Sake Brewery Association member breweries suffered damage, with 8 suffering complete destruction. While the news of the earthquake and the recovery efforts have fallen out of the headlines, we wanted to offer our ...
Episode 163. Word on the street is that travel to Japan is surging! One of the joys of travel to Japan is returning with a suitcase full of sake! But how best to do it?! This week, John and Timothy discuss the ins and outs of bringing back sake from Japan. What's allowed and what's not! Where to buy sake and how to package it. Import duties and duty free shops! If you want the lowdown on our experience bringing sake home from travel to Japan, this episode is for you. L...
Episode 162. With 2023 drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at the sake year that was. Join us this week for some casual sipping and some discussion on the highlights, surprises and challenges of this past year's sake adventures. Tim and John both let us know their favorite sake stories and their favorite episodes from the past year. Do you know which episode was our most downloaded from 2023? Let us know in the comments and we look forward to another year of great sa...
Episode 161. This week, John and Timothy explore another brand profile: Masumi from Miyasaka Jozo in Nagano Prefecture. Most well known as the birthplace of Association Number 7 sake yeast, Masumi has a long history dating back to 1662. Located on beautiful Lake Suwa, Masumi is a brand that is well known outside of Japan. The brand name of "Masumi" means transparency or truth and traces its origin to an ancient bronze mirror, which is a treasure of the local shrine and is the prov...
Episode 181. Sake Day, celebrated every year on October 1st, will be here before you know it, and Sake Revolution is here to be your guide! In this special episode, John and Timothy map out the most exciting Sake Day celebrations happening across the country in 2025, from San Francisco’s legendary 20th anniversary Sake Day to exciting events in Boston, Denver, D.C., San Diego, and New York. For devoted sake fans, Sake Day feels like all our favorite holidays rolled up into one, and we can't w...
