THE AMERICAN DREAM
CEDAR RIVER BREWING CO.
Jeff James recently set up the Cedar River Brewing
Company in Seattle, Washington: “My work
background is mainly in the software development
industry, and more recently in commercial real
estate management. I started brewing beer about
15 years ago, but never commercially. I liked
brewing a lot and became fairly proficient at it.
For many years I’ve had a dream of opening a
small brewery.
I’ve always enjoyed sake, but until about 6 years
ago I’d had only inexpensive, hot, house sake.
Then I tried a premium sake and felt I had
opened the door to a whole new world! A year
later I brewed my first batch of sake, and it came
out pretty well. Soon I started thinking about
brewing sake on a commercial basis. When I
discovered our current space on Phinney Ridge
in Seattle, the time was right and it was too good
to pass up. We had not had a sake brewery in this
state in over 70 years until I opened Cedar River.
“We started brewing the first batch in July
2013. Sales started on International Sake Day,
October 1st 2013. Our production is very small,
only several hundred cases each year. We have
recently scaled up production by about 50%, but
we plan to stay small and artisanal.
We make four styles: Junmai, Nama, Nigori, and
Taru. All are junmai sake. The most American
thing I do is craft a taru-style sake with American
Western Red Cedar. This is a different species
of cedar than used in Japan. The results are very
similar, but knowledgeable sake drinkers may
recognize the difference. Regarding American
style, I would say I try to bring a little of that to
our sake while still honoring and emulating the
quality of Japanese sake.
We get our water [and name] from the Cedar
River which flows out of the Cascade Mountains
here in western Washington. Our area is known
for having some of the best brewing water in the
country. Cedar River water helps make our sake
clean and fresh.
We use Calrose rice grown in California . Our
supplier polishes the rice for us to our specification.
Currently we are using 60% seimaibuai rice for
all of our styles.Another thing that is particularly
American about our sake is the packaging and
labelling. We use water color art on the label
that is designed to evoke the feeling of the
Pacific Northwest region of the country. We
are targeting a market of people interested in
both local and Asian or Japanese-influenced
products. Most of the restaurants that carry
our sake feature Japanese or Asian-style items
made with local ingredients. We are targeting
restaurants and bottle shops, and we sell bottles
out of the brewery”.
SAKEONE
Oregon-based, SakeOne started brewing craft
sake in 1997. It was the first and is the largest of
the smaller-scale American craft sake breweries.
Well established, the brewery sells sake across
the US, and exports to other countries in North,
Central, South America and the Caribbean.
Valerie Fayette, from SakeOne explains the
brewery’s origins: “SakeOne was originally
founded to import Japanese sake to the United
States. Realizing the potential for sake making
in the Pacific NW, in part due to the pristine
water source of the east slope of Oregon’s coastal
range, the founder of the company, Griffith
Frost, along with import partner, Momokawa
Brewing of Japan, decided to try making craft
MUSEUM OF SAKE JOURNAL 41