The Best Way to Learn About Sake
Friday, April 16th, 2010Greetings!
As friends of SAKAYA with more than a passing interest in sake, we wanted to make you aware of the very best way to learn all there is to know about it in just three days! It is sake expert/educator John Gauntner’s Sake Professionals Course. As January 2007 graduates, we found that it not only provided the comprehensive knowledge and fundamental understanding that we needed to build our business, but also put us in touch with an indispensable network of friends and kindred sake souls with whom we have a lasting bond.  At the time that we took the course, it was only offered in Japan but since then John has begun to offer it at varying locations in the U.S. San Francisco is the site for this June.
Whether you are already a sake enthusiast or have always felt that you wanted to delve more deeply into it, this is your opportunity to get the most thorough indoctrination into all things sake! As John guarantees, once you have completed this course, there will be nothing that anyone can ask you about sake that you won’t have covered.
John Gauntner, the premier authority on sake will be offering his Sake Professional Course in San Francisco on June 20, 21, and 22, 2010. The course is geared towards those working in the restaurant industry, but is open to anyone is seriously passionate about the subject and/or is seeking to start a sake career.
The course is the most thorough English language sake education to be found anywhere. Attendees will learn not just about the technical aspects of sake brewing, but will also participate in sake tastings which focus on differences in rice varietals, types of sake yeasts, and regional styles.
For all the details click here.
Anyone who is familiar with Japanese language may get confused about the name Nanbu Bijin (å—部美人). Translated as Southern Beauty, one may wonder why the “Nanbu” (å—部) or Southern when the brewer is located in the northern part of Japan?
Nanbu Bijin Brewery is rather small, family-run operation. It has seven kurabito (people involved in the brewing process), all young men in their 20’s and 30’s. They also employ twenty staff members to run the operation. The brewery produces 2,500 koku of sake. (1 koku = 180 liters or 100 – 1.8 litter isshobin). It is considered a small to mid-sized brewery (those with production of less than 1000 koku are very small.)
The journey started when his wife Rika suggested mixing his “All-Koji Sake” with kiwi or strawberry to make a fruit cocktail. This all-koji sake was a early brainchild that he created in 1998, and it is now a staple of the Nanbu Bijin lineup. It is made from just three ingredients: koji (koji-mold affected rice), water, and yeast starter instead of the four ingredients usually used for making sake: rice, water, yeast, and koji. Koji-mold’s job is to break down
the rice starch into the simple sugar, glucose. Therefore, koji (rice inoculated with koji mold) has a high glucose level. This “All-Koji Sake” has a little sweetness that makes it a good mixer for a fruit cocktail.
