SAKE PRODUCTION ABROAD
3
SAKE
PRODUCTION
ARTISAN SAKE MAKER
Masa Shiroki started his career helping new craft
beer breweries start in Japan, but then decided to
do something meaningful with Japanese culture.
With the help of a consultant in Hiroshima, he set
up Artisan Sake Maker, bringing sake production to
Canada, but with the ambition of founding a purely
Canadian product.
ABROAD
They sourced a Ginpu sake rice that could be
grown in 5 acres of local paddy fields in the Fraser
Valley. The result is a fresh and fruit flavoured sake, in
unpasteurised, unfiltered and sake varieties.
In the past 100 years sake production appeared
in multiple continents across the world, following
patterns of migration and trade. Now new craftbrewing operations are adding to this diverse and
complex pattern of international breweries, all
seeking to match and innovate with traditional
Japanese techniques.
100% rice grown in British Colombia in small
batches several times a year
YK3
The closed Nipro Sake brewery
in Richmond was reborn as YK3
using traditional techniques.
HONOLULU
JAPANESE
SAKE
BREWING CO
1908-1989
MOTO-I
TEXAS SAKE
Texas Shinriki
Local Organic Rice
Best selling sake in the USA >
Several sake breweries such as the Japan
Brewing Company appeared along the West
Coast of America, particularly California to
accompany the immigrant populations in the
early 20th century. Little of these survived
the Prohibition era, but a revival followed
in the 1970s and 80s when major Japanese
sake companies followed the growth of
Japanese business travel, establishing local
manufacture with American calrose rice.
Sho Chiku Bai
At the end of the 19th
century many Japanese
immigrants working on
Hawaiian sugar plantations,
were faced with rising
import taxes levied on
Japanese Sake. They started
to turn to home brewing.
This led to one of the
first sake breweries to
be established outside
Japan, when Taijiro Sumida
arrived in Hawaii from
Hiroshima. The brewery
continued throughout most
of the 20th century.
SAKEONE
Moonstone
1992 Oregon - Formed
from Frost International
Group and Niigata
based producer
Momokawa Brewing Inc
Diamond
Junmai Ginjo
RESEARCH: ANNA GREENHOUS / SOHO+CO
ILLUSTRATION: SOHO+CO
U
SA
OZEKI
TAKARA
GEKKEIKAN
YAEGAKI
80%
DOMESTIC BREWED
ACCOUNTS FOR
OF SALES IN THE USA
Locally grown medium-grain Calrose rice
40% IN 3 YEARS
GROWTH OF MARKET
TOZAN 1934
Founded in 1934 in Sao Paulo,
Tozan struggled at first with the
difference in climate and access to
materials.
SAKERIA THIKARA
In Brazil the large
immigrant Japanese
population helped establish
early Sake or “saque”
breweries. It has seen rapid
growth in recent years,
to accompany sushi. The
sakérinha cocktail is
growing as a healthier
alternative to
the caipirinha.
Based in Sao Paulo, Sakeria Thikara produces
premium honjozo sake in Brazil using imported
Japanese rice.
SAKE FUJI
SAKE OKINAWA
SAKE RYO
Breweries targeting
cocktail markets
AZUMA KIRIN
The Sake production was purchased by Japanese
Kirin brewery in 1975 and improved with new
technology and investment. Now under the name
Azuma Kirin, they junmai, ginjo and unpasteurised
varieties using rice grown in Uraguay.