Sake is an ancient beverage, produced for over 2,000 years in Japan. Despite this long history, the industry's lack of standardization often leads to conflicting definitions and confusion. Yet a focus on regionality, Jizake (microbreweries), and improved regulation are improving sake's worldwide reputation. Today, it is clear that there is a place for sake in a wide variety of beverage programs, well beyond Japanese restaurants.
Although it has a similar alcohol by volume to wine, sake isn’t made from grapes, and the process is not a single-step fermentation from sugar to alcohol, so it is technically incorrect to call it rice wine. Though brewed, sake isn’t like a beer, either. Rice doesn’t get malted the same way as barley, and sake often achieves a much higher potential alcohol by volume. Sake is entirely unique: in a single tank, starch converts to sugar and yeast consumes sugar to produce alcohol (and CO2) simultaneously in what is called multiple parallel fermentation.
Sake production has been passed down over centuries of practical application, blurring the lines of tradition and innovation. Today, technological advances and modernization have changed the industry. With at least one sake brewery (kura or sakagura) in each of Japan’s 47 prefectures, it is becoming harder for brewers to keep their secrets. While sake is often made with minimal intervention, breweries do have their techniques—and some are “cleaner” than others.
The number of sake breweries in Japan is a fraction of what it once was. There were upwards of 30,000 sake producers during the Meiji era (1868-1912), and after World War II, over 4,000 remained. Now, there are only about 1,500 breweries with licenses, with just three-quarters of them
"Known as jozo-alcohol, it is normally made from distilled rice or sugar beet and is unaged, colorless, and often flavorless."
- Brewers spirit is normally distilled from sugar cane or molasses. Page 6: The Story of Sake
" Later, a producer will decide to add brewer’s alcohol if more texture, body, and minerality are desired; this can also soften any overwhelming aromatic components and flavors."
- This is somewhat confusing as brewers spirit is also used as a solvent to enhance aromatics in the final sake. SAKE 101: Brewer’s Alcohol (Jozo Alcohol) - SAKETIMES - Your Sake Source
“Breweries may append Ki-ippon to any of their Junmai level sake to denote that the entire production came from a single place of origin, with no ingredients outsourced.”
- This makes it seem as if the water, yeast, rice, and koji had to come from the brewery or the geographic location of the brewery (prefecture or what have you) but ki-ippon is just that the Junmai sake was produced at a single brewery with no outside sake blended in