Sake (日本酒, nihonshu) is Japan's national drink: brewed from rice, water and koji mould, sometimes with a little distilled alcohol added. Often called rice wine, it is really closer to beer, brewed not pressed, and a piece of microbial cleverness called multiple parallel fermentation gives it both its character and its unusual strength. Its koji-based craft was inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
This is our main guide to sake, written for chefs and curious drinkers alike: what it is, how it is made, the toji who make it, the grades, the rice and water, the yeast, how to serve and store it, and how to use it. It sits inside our Drinks Masterclass.
A Brewed Rice Drink, Not a Wine
Sake (日本酒, nihonshu) is a Japanese fermented drink brewed from rice, water and koji mould, sometimes with a small amount of distilled alcohol added. Its defining trick is multiple parallel fermentation: koji enzymes turn rice starch into sugar at the same moment yeast turns that sugar into alcohol, in one vessel. That simultaneous process lets sake reach roughly 15 to 20% ABV, among the highest of any brewed drink.
The clearest way to place sake is by what it is not. In wine, the sugar is already in the grape, so the yeast simply ferments it. In beer, malt enzymes make the sugar first, then fermentation follows as a separate step. Sake does both at once, which is why it ferments so far and carries the rounded, savoury character that sits so well alongside umami-rich food. It is brewed, not distilled like its cousin shochu, and the word nihonshu means simply "Japan alcohol". Style and quality come from the rice variety, how far it is polished, the water, the koji, the yeast strain, the fermentation temperature, and whether distilled alcohol is added.
Source: the parallel-fermentation mechanism is established brewing knowledge, corroborated by the Hakutsuru brand book. Facts extracted and reworded.
How Sake Is Made
Sake is made by polishing rice, steaming it, growing koji on part of it, building a yeast starter, then fermenting everything together in one mash before pressing and filtering. This koji-based method is the traditional craft that UNESCO inscribed in 2024, practised by toji and their teams across Japan; the steps below are common to premium brewing, with Nada's Hakutsuru and Akita's Hideyoshi cited where a detail is house-specific.
1. Polishing (精米)
The hard outer layer of the grain is milled away to reveal the starch-rich centre. How much is removed sets the grade floor: the more you polish, the finer the potential sake.
2. Steaming (蒸米)
The polished rice is steamed so it takes up water and the starch softens, ready for the koji and the mash.
3. Koji cultivation (製麹)
A portion of the steamed rice goes into a hot, humid koji room, where the toji and their team work it by hand over several days to keep temperature and moisture even. Aspergillus oryzae mould grows through the grain and produces the amylase enzymes that convert starch to sugar. This is the most skilled and time-hungry stage.
4. Shubo, the seed mash (酒母)
Yeast culture, water, koji and steamed rice are combined and the temperature managed constantly until a vigorous starter is ready. This seeds the main fermentation (more on yeast below).
5. Moromi, the main mash (醪)
The shubo is added to more steamed rice, koji and water, and ferments for several weeks. This is where parallel fermentation happens in full.
6. Pressing and filtering (上槽・濾過)
The mash is pressed to separate the fresh sake from the lees, then usually filtered to a clear liquid. Nigori styles skip or limit the filtering, which is why they stay milky.
For a chef, the takeaway is that koji management and water are the two levers that shape a sake more than any machine, which is why both the maker's skill and the brewery's location matter so much.
Source: the koji-brewing craft as the UNESCO-inscribed tradition (UNESCO ICH and the Agency for Cultural Affairs leaflet); the step sequence corroborated by the Hakutsuru brand book. Step-by-step temperatures and the kimoto/yamahai starter variants are covered only in part in our records. Facts extracted and reworded.
The Toji and the Heritage of Sake
Sake is not an industrial product but a craft one, and in December 2024 UNESCO recognised that by inscribing "traditional knowledge and skills of sake-making with koji mould in Japan" on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The koji-based brewing tradition is reckoned to have taken shape more than 500 years ago, and the same koji craft underpins not only sake but shochu, awamori and mirin.
The craft is led by the toji (杜氏), the master brewer, who directs the kurabito (蔵人), the brewery team. Sake-making was originally done by women, and today people of all genders train in it through apprenticeship. Toji organise into regional guilds and schools, Nanbu, Echigo, Tanba, Noto, Hiroshima and others, federated under the National Toji Guild Federation (Nittoren), which runs a certified master-brewer qualification: 237 toji held it as of November 2024, within a wider membership of around 714 across 19 guilds. When you buy a serious sake, you are buying that accumulated, certified skill.
Source: UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage listing (the 2024 inscription, toji/kurabito, women origins); the Agency for Cultural Affairs leaflet (500-plus years, the shared koji craft); the Nittoren toji register and site (guilds, the certification, 237 certified toji). Facts extracted and reworded; the leaflet is fact-extracted, not reproduced.
Sake Yeast
Yeast is the second engine of sake after koji: it ferments the koji-made sugars into alcohol while producing the acids that shape taste and the esters that carry aroma. Sake yeast is unusual in fermenting to over 20% alcohol, and it was first isolated anywhere in the world in 1895, by Dr Kikuji Yabe in Japan. Superior strains have since been bred and shared with breweries nationwide as the Kyokai yeasts.
Strain choice is a deliberate quality lever: some yeasts are specialised for an efficient, fruity ginjo aroma, others for low acidity, so a brewer picks the yeast to suit the target sake. In traditional brewing the starter is raised by hand, and the kimoto and yamahai methods are older, more labour-intensive ways of cultivating that yeast culture, giving a fuller, more savoury sake. For a chef, this is why two sakes from the same grade and rice can smell and taste quite different: the yeast is doing much of the talking.
Source: NRIB sake-yeast material (the 1895 isolation by Yabe, fermentation above 20%, Kyokai strains, strain specialisation, kimoto/yamahai). Class D, fact-extracted and reworded.
The Grades of Sake
Sake's premium grades are set by Japan's national tokutei meishoshu (特定名称酒) standard, defined mainly by how far the rice is polished and whether a little distilled alcohol (capped at 10% of the rice weight) is added. Eight special designations sit above ordinary table sake, futsū-shu. The key split is the pure-rice junmai grades, made from rice, koji and water only, against their added-alcohol equivalents at the same polishing tier.
| Grade | Japanese | Rice remaining | Added alcohol? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junmai Daiginjo | 純米大吟醸 | 50% or less | No |
| Daiginjo | 大吟醸 | 50% or less | Yes |
| Junmai Ginjo | 純米吟醸 | 60% or less | No |
| Ginjo | 吟醸 | 60% or less | Yes |
| Tokubetsu Junmai | 特別純米 | 60% or less, or special method | No |
| Tokubetsu Honjozo | 特別本醸造 | 60% or less, or special method | Yes |
| Junmai | 純米 | No minimum | No |
| Honjozo | 本醸造 | 70% or less | Yes |
The short version for a kitchen: a highly polished junmai daiginjo is the delicate, aromatic, special-occasion pour; a junmai ginjo is the versatile food sake to start most kitchens on; and fuller junmai and honjozo are the everyday styles that take gentle warming. For the full eight-rung ladder, the added-alcohol cap and the styles that cut across the grades (nigori, namazake, koshu), see our full guide to sake grades and types.
Source: grade thresholds follow Japan's tokutei meishoshu standard (National Research Institute of Brewing / National Tax Agency). Facts extracted and reworded.
Sake Rice (Sakamai)
Sake rice is not table rice. It has a larger grain, a different starch structure and the toughness to survive heavy polishing, and the variety shapes the final sake. The best known is Yamada Nishiki, but brewers develop and favour their own.
| Rice | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Yamada Nishiki (山田錦) | The "king of sake rice": a large grain that withstands polishing, grown in Hyogo. The most widely used premium sake rice. |
| Gohyakumangoku (五百万石) | Lower in starch, producing a clean, light sake. |
| Omachi (雄町) | A heritage variety prized for full-bodied, characterful sake, as in Okayama's Bizen Maboroshi. |
| Hakutsuru Nishiki (白鶴錦) | A brewery's own rice: a Hakutsuru cross of Yamada Nishiki and Tankan-Wataribune, the first successful such cross in 70 years, registered 2007. |
Source: Hakutsuru brand book (Yamada Nishiki, Hakutsuru Nishiki) and SushiSushi product records (Gohyakumangoku, Omachi). A full sakamai comparison is not yet covered.
Water and Terroir
Water is the largest ingredient in sake and one of its strongest expressions of place, and the divide that matters most is hard against soft. Hard water (硬水), rich in minerals, drives a vigorous fermentation and a fuller, more assertive sake: the spring water of Nada, rain filtered through the Rokko mountains, is the classic example, and Hakutsuru, founded there in 1743, calls it unusual in Japan. Soft water (軟水), low in minerals, ferments more gently for a lighter, more delicate sake: the Akita brewery Hideyoshi brews exclusively with the very pure, soft groundwater of the Ou mountains, producing sake it calls soft yet clean.
The takeaway for a chef is that two breweries using the same rice and grade can still make quite different sake, because the water and the region pull in different directions. It is sake's version of terroir.
Source: Hakutsuru brand book (Nada hard water) and Hideyoshi / Suzuki Brewery, Akita (Ou mountain soft water). Facts extracted and reworded.
Reading a Sake Label: the Key Numbers
A few numbers on the back label tell you most of what a sake will taste like before you open it. The most useful is the Sake Meter Value, a quick proxy for dry or sweet.
| Metric | Japanese | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Sake Meter Value (SMV) | 日本酒度 | Dry or sweet. Positive is drier, negative is sweeter. Most sake runs about -10 to +10; fruit sake can reach -100. |
| Acidity | 酸度 | Body and freshness. Higher acidity feels fuller and more savoury. Most sake sits 1.0 to 2.0. |
| Amino acid value | アミノ酸度 | Umami. Higher means more savoury and round; lower means cleaner. |
| Polishing ratio | 精米歩合 | Grade floor. The percentage of grain remaining; 38% is highly polished, 100% unpolished. |
Read together, these let a chef predict a sake without tasting it: a drier, higher-acidity junmai cuts through fat and salt, while a softer, sweeter, lower-acidity sake suits delicate dishes.
Source: Hakutsuru product data and SushiSushi sake records. Facts extracted and reworded.
Popular Products
Four to start with: three Hakutsuru across the grade ladder, and one from a contrasting brewery to show how region and rice variety shape the drink:
Hakutsuru Junmai Daiginjo, 720ml
The pure-rice pinnacle: rice polished to 50% or less, no added alcohol, slow and cold-brewed for a clean, aromatic, special-occasion pour. Serve well chilled.
Hakutsuru Superior Junmai Ginjo, 720ml
The versatile food sake, and the one we would put in most kitchens first. Aromatic enough to interest, structured enough to sit beside a course. Best chilled to cool.
How to Serve Sake
Sake is the only major drink regularly served across the full temperature range, from well chilled to genuinely hot. The same bottle can taste like a different drink at 5°C and at 50°C, and Japanese has a separate word for each step.
| Serve | Japanese | Temperature |
|---|---|---|
| Very cold | 雪冷え Yuki-bie | about 5°C |
| Chilled | 花冷え Hana-bie | 10°C |
| Cool | 涼冷え Suzu-bie | 15°C |
| Room temperature | 常温 Jo'on | about 20°C |
| Warm | ぬる燗 Nurukan | 40°C |
| Hot | 熱燗 Atsukan | 50°C |
As a rough guide, delicate, highly polished ginjo styles are usually best chilled, where their aromatics show, while fuller junmai sakes take gentle warming around 40°C. The vessel matters too: a thin-rimmed cup flatters an aromatic daiginjo, a small tokkuri and ochoko make a ritual of warm sake, and our sake ware covers both. For the full named scale and which styles to chill or warm, see our guide to sake temperature.
Source: SushiSushi sake records and Hakutsuru product guidance. Facts extracted and reworded.
Storing Sake
Most sake (except namazake) is pasteurised, but storage still changes it, and poor storage spoils it. The off-aroma of badly kept sake is hineka (老香), a stale note dominated by a sulphur compound that smells of pickles; it is barely present in fresh sake but builds from a precursor during storage, especially when warm. The fix is simple: keep sake cool and out of light, and drink most styles fresh, with namazake kept cold and treated like a fresh product.
Deliberate ageing is a different thing: long-aged sake (koshu) develops a desirable caramel-like maturity, an intended character rather than the hineka fault. The practical line for a kitchen is to store cool and dark, serve most sake young, and treat aged koshu as its own style.
Source: NRIB storage and ageing material (hineka and its precursor, the positive jukusei-ka of aged sake). Class D, fact-extracted and reworded.
How Chefs Use Sake
Beyond the glass, sake earns its place in a professional kitchen three ways. As a pairing it is more forgiving than wine with the dishes that defeat wine, anything built on dashi, soy, miso or raw fish, where sake's umami meets the food rather than fighting it; NRIB has even shown with taste-sensing instruments that a good sake pairing measurably lifts umami and sweetness and cleans the finish, and that sake leaves a longer savoury finish with cheese than wine does. As an ingredient, a splash brings depth and gentle sweetness to glazes, braises, cures and dressings, reading as savoury length rather than alcohol (see cooking sake versus mirin). And as theatre, warmed sake poured at the table is a small piece of service guests remember.
The practical takeaway: keep a versatile junmai ginjo for pouring and cooking, a fuller junmai for warming and robust dishes, and one aromatic daiginjo for the end of a tasting menu.
Source: NRIB food-pairing material (the measurable basis, the cheese note); broader kitchen guidance is SushiSushi practice. Class D, fact-extracted and reworded.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is sake a wine or a spirit?
Neither. Sake is a brewed beverage, made by fermenting rice, so it is closer to beer than to wine, and it is not distilled like a spirit. It is often called rice wine for convenience, but the production is quite different: sake uses koji mould and yeast to ferment in parallel, reaching around 15 to 20% alcohol naturally.
What does junmai mean?
Junmai (純米) means "pure rice" sake: made only from rice, water and rice koji, with no distilled alcohol added. You will see it as a prefix across the grades, as in junmai ginjo and junmai daiginjo. Where junmai is absent from a premium grade name, as in plain daiginjo, a small, capped amount of distilled alcohol has been added to lift aroma and lighten the body.
Who makes sake?
Sake is made by a toji (master brewer) leading a team of kurabito (brewery workers), a koji-based craft that UNESCO inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024. Toji train through apprenticeship and organise into regional guilds; Japan's federation runs a certified master-brewer qualification held by 237 toji as of late 2024. Sake-making was originally women's work.
Is sake served hot or cold?
Both. Sake is served across a wider temperature range than any other major drink, from about 5°C to 50°C, each with its own Japanese name. Delicate, highly polished ginjo styles usually show best chilled, while fuller junmai styles are often recommended warm at around 40°C. The right temperature depends on the sake; see our sake temperature guide.
How should sake be stored?
Keep sake cool and out of direct light, and drink most styles fresh. Poor or warm storage produces a stale off-aroma called hineka, so a cool, dark cupboard or the fridge is best, and unpasteurised namazake should be kept cold and treated as a fresh product. Deliberately aged sake (koshu) is a separate, intended style rather than a fault.
Where to Buy Sake in the UK
If you are looking to buy Japanese sake in the UK, our online store stocks a range from everyday junmai to premium daiginjo, including the historic Hakutsuru house, with fast delivery across the UK.
For more, browse the Drinks Masterclass, go deeper on sake grades and sake temperature, or read about shochu, the distilled side of Japanese drinks.
Technical data sourced from Japan's National Research Institute of Brewing (the grade standard, sake yeast, storage and ageing, food-pairing science), the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage listing and the Agency for Cultural Affairs leaflet (the 2024 inscription and the toji craft), the National Toji Guild Federation (Nittoren) register (the toji certification), and the brand records of Hakutsuru (Nada, established 1743) and Hideyoshi (Suzuki Brewery, Akita). The koji-brewing tradition is the inscribed craft; brewery-specific claims reflect those houses' documented practice; the grade system follows Japan's tokutei meishoshu standard. Published sources are fact-extracted and reworded, not reproduced.
