Amabuki, Banana Yeast Junmai Daiginjo Nama, 720ml
A Daiginjo Fermented with Banana-Flower Yeast
Amabuki, a brewery in Saga Prefecture, does something almost no one else does: it ferments its sake with yeasts cultivated from flowers and fruit, each one shaping a different aroma. This top-grade Junmai Daiginjo uses a yeast drawn from banana, and you can taste it, a soft, sweet, banana-like note running through a creamy, rounded sake. It is also a nama (生), unpasteurised, which keeps it lively and fresh. Sweet, smooth and approachable, it is a sake that wins over wine drinkers and sake newcomers alike.
Why Sommeliers Choose This
- Flower-and-fruit yeast: Amabuki's signature technique, here a banana yeast giving a distinctive soft, fruity character
- Top grade: Junmai Daiginjo, pure rice polished to 50%, fragrant and refined
- Nama (unpasteurised): bottled raw for a lively, fresh, vivid character
- Sweet and creamy: rounded and approachable, a genuine crowd-pleaser
How to Serve
- Well chilled: serve cold, 0–15°C, to keep a nama fresh and lively
- Wine glass: a tulip glass lifts the banana and fruit aromatics
- With food: lovely with vinegared mackerel, braised pork belly or rich poultry
- With dessert: its sweetness pairs beautifully with ganache and truffle-style chocolates
花酵母 — Flower yeast, and Amabuki's signature
Yeast is one of the great hidden levers of sake flavour, and Amabuki has built its identity on it. Rather than using the standard association yeasts most breweries share, Amabuki cultivates hana-kobo (花酵母), yeasts isolated from flowers and fruit, each producing its own distinct aroma profile. The banana yeast used here gives a soft, sweet, banana-like fruitiness that is unmistakably Amabuki. The sake itself is a Junmai Daiginjo, made with only rice, water and koji and polished to the top grade, and it is bottled as a nama (生), unpasteurised, which preserves a fresh, vivid liveliness that pasteurised sake loses.
Learn more: Understanding sake grades and styles
What does nama (unpasteurised) sake taste like?
Fresh, lively and vivid. Most sake is pasteurised twice, which stabilises it; a nama skips that, so it keeps a bright, almost zingy freshness and a fuller fruit character, closer to how the sake tastes straight from the tank. The trade-off is that nama is more delicate and shorter-lived, so it must be kept cold and drunk while young. Paired here with Amabuki's banana yeast and a top daiginjo polish, the result is sweet, creamy, rounded and full of fresh fruit, an unusually friendly and characterful sake.
Product Details
| Grade | 純米大吟醸 生 — Junmai Daiginjo, Nama (unpasteurised) |
| Brand | Amabuki (天吹), Saga Prefecture |
| Yeast | Banana flower/fruit yeast |
| Rice / Polish | Jugemu, polished to 50% |
| ABV | 16% |
| Sake Meter Value | -10 (sweet) |
| Volume | 720ml |
| Serve | Well chilled, 0–15°C |
| Origin | Saga, Japan |
What is flower yeast (hana-kobo) sake?
Most breweries ferment with standardised "association" yeasts. Amabuki is known for instead using yeasts isolated from flowers and fruit, each of which imparts its own aroma to the finished sake, from strawberry and apple to, here, banana. It is a distinctive house style that produces fruit-forward, characterful sake quite different from the norm, and it is what makes a bottle like this so recognisable.
Why does nama sake need to be kept cold?
Because it is unpasteurised. Pasteurising stabilises sake for storage; a nama skips it to keep its fresh, lively character, but that means it stays alive and delicate and will change if it warms up. Keep it refrigerated at all times, before and after opening, and drink it while young and fresh. Treated this way it rewards you with a vividness pasteurised sake cannot match.
What food pairs with it?
Its sweet, creamy, fruit-forward character is versatile. It works with vinegared mackerel and other oily fish, with braised pork belly and richer poultry, and surprisingly well with chocolate, especially ganache and truffles, where its sweetness and banana note shine. Serve it well chilled so it stays fresh and lively alongside the food.
SKU : X0018