Dear Club Members,

I am exploding with excitement — after months of traveling and tasting, our Fall menu is here, and it is a true embodiment of what is happening right now in the sake industry in the Northeast. I do not promise this industry snapshot for every menu, but the mission of the club is to share sake’s most exciting moments with you and folks, we are in it. There are breweries from Japan expanding in the U.S. for the first time. There is a special collaboration between a “local” brewer and a Japanese powerhouse. And there are even some drinks that are NOT SAKE: martini’s from our resident cocktail bartender, Courtney Moy, star spirits using sake kasu, while just in time for après-apple picking, there is a cider made from sake yeast.

To preserve the menu integrity, I have reserved my sake related headlines to this blog post. If you find them as fascinating as I do, there are tasting suggestions to accompany each headline.

To begin, within one month (this month!), two of Japan’s most widely recognized Japanese sake breweries are opening their first expansions into the United States:

Dassai Blue Opens in Hyde Park, NY

I had the honor of being in attendance at the Grand Opening party of this stunning brewery in late September. And while the rain tried its best to put a damper on the day, the room was buzzing— with fresh effervescent Dassai Blue in our glasses, and the energy of an international crowd here to celebrate the long-awaited opening in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America.

This means that sake is becoming so popular in the United States that Dassai felt compelled to expand its operations closer to us. Music to our ears! Dassai currently exports 15% of their sake to the U.S. which is quite impressive as one of over a thousand breweries sold here.

“We want to become an integral part of the American beverage culture by offering sake that reflects the local terroir, mindset and palate. Producing sake here is the only way to do so,” Kazuhiro said to Forbes.

Interested in visiting Dassai Blue? Honestly, I can not wait to go back!

For more details on the new space, check out Florence Fabricant’s coverage in the New York Times from September 25, 2023:

"Dassai, the brand of sake made by Asahi Shuzo in Yamaguchi, in southern Japan, is not new to the United States. But this week its sake produced in the Hudson Valley is making its debut. On Oct. 12, the company’s new sake brewery in Hyde Park, N.Y., a 55,000 square foot complex of rooms for washing and soaking rice, koji-making, drying, steaming, fermenting and bottling, will open its visitor center for tastings and tours by reservation, $50.

The facility is producing a few sakes, the first of which, Dassai Blue 50, is now appearing on store shelves and in restaurants. Kazuhiro Sakurai, the company’s president, said that Dassai has partnered with the nearby Culinary Institute of America, which approached them to open the brewery in part to work with its instructors, students and chefs to educate them about sake. Dassai is a supporter of the cooking school.

In addition to the brewery’s sprawl of antiseptic white rooms equipped to handle the various stages of sake-making, there is a separate building where the rice for sake is milled at enough of a distance to prevent dust from the process from tainting production. Rice is milled or polished to varying degrees — the more extreme the finer the drink.

Dassai Blue 50 refers to the rice grains that are polished to 50 percent of their original size, making the drink a daiginjo. (The company plans to introduce sakes at 35 percent and a 23 percent.) For now the rice is being imported from Japan, but Dassai has begun cultivating the proper variety in Arkansas. Dassai Blue 50 (about $35) is clear, with a fruity, honeydew aroma, and a smooth, slightly sweet flavor.

Though most sakes, including Dassai’s imports, have 16 to 17 percent alcohol, Dassai Blue 50 is 14 percent. Mr. Sakurai’s father, Hiroshi Sakurai, the company chairman, said that one of their goals is to make sake more acceptable to accompany cuisines other than Japanese; “a challenge,” he said. The company recommends using stemware, not traditional sake glasses.”

As of October 7, 2023, Dassai Blue is now accepting reservations for brewery tours.
Book here.

Want to taste Dassai’s finest without the 3+ hour drive to upstate New York?
Here are our suggestions from the list (sadly, no Dassai Blue yet)

Junmai Daiginjo, Dassai ‘Hayata’ 23, Yamaguchi

Professor Hayata discovered and patented the pasteurization technique used in making this version of Dassai 23. Essentially, he developed a quick and light pasteurization method that allowed CO2 to develop in the bottle without it becoming a sparkling sake, and provided a new texture to unmistakeable and wildly popular Dassai 23.

In a word, this Hayata drinks lighter than 23, but has all of those buoyant and delicious flavors in every sip. Look for melon, grape, peach, powder sugar, cotton candy, pineapple, cantaloupe, papaya, and mango flavors that float above the palate as each sip passes by. Silky, spritzy, light and elegant Hayata is a food pairing dream come true that makes a sushi counter come to life. More Details Here

Junmai Daiginjo, Dassai Beyond, Yamaguchi

With the tiniest milling ratio so smol they can’t share an actual percentage, Dassai “beyond” is joining the Treat Yourself List as our most expensive offering to date. Taste the difference by ordering a 2 oz pour of Dassai 23 to compare.
Arriving in November.

Brooklyn Kura and Hakkaisan Open a New Brewery and Tap Room in Industry City, Brooklyn

Our next major news story is the exponential expansion of Brooklyn Kura in collaboration with Niigata powerhouse Hakkaisan. In December of 2021, the two highly respected brands shared with us what they are calling a “business and capital alliance.” They are now full swing breaking ground in Brooklyn and relocating sake brewers from Niigata to Brooklyn to grow both businesses focusing on growing operations but also their shared vision of international sake education (and world domination lol). With opening details still TBD, I got a behind the scenes glimpse of the impressive work being done in Industry City and it promises more horsepower for the already impressive bottles and collaborations from Brooklyn Kura.

Let’s drink about it:

Junmai Daiginjo, Hakkaisan, Niigata

Daiginjo, Hakkaisan, Niigata

Junmai Ginjo, Brooklyn Kura #14, New York

Oishii Hard Cider, Brooklyn Kura x Wollfer Estate, Long Island

The 50/50 Saketini
Matchbook Distilling Land of Muses Gin, Brooklyn Kura #14 Junmai Ginjo and Matchbook Distilling Fieldtrip Squash Amaro

A taste of the ‘90s hits our cocktail menu

The 90’s are back—to celebrate, Courtney Moy, resident club cocktail bartender and creator of Good Neighbor Boston, has introduced two new sake cocktails .

The 50/50 Saketini
Matchbook Distilling Land of Muses Gin, Brooklyn Kura #14 Junmai Ginjo, Matchbook Distilling Fieldtrip Squash Amaro

Leslie Merinoff at Matchbook Distilling is making magic on the North Fork. She makes a shochu using sake kasu (the byproduct of sake fermentation) from our pals at Brooklyn Kura. This shochu is used in her Land of Muses gin alongside Albanian Juniper, Rose, Apricot, Orris Root and Lemongrass. Our cocktail is equal parts gin and sake, representing so many parts of sake fermentation. So in one cocktail, you are drinking sake, shochu made from sake kasu, and gin with sake kasu shochu. This cocktail will also be stirred at the Matchbook Distilling Tasting Room if/when you go visit the North Fork this Fall.

The Lychee Martini
30 years ago, Sake Bar Decibel in New York’s East Village invented the iconic lychee martini. Moy’s gorgeous homage to the classic contains clarified lychee juice and a little Amabuki Gin No Kurenai (the sake is pink!), making the cocktail (and us) blush.

Lychee Martini
Mizunomai Lemongrass Shochu, Clarified Lychee Juice, Amabuki Gin No Kurenai Junmai Ginjo from Saga

Really looking forward to seeing all of you this Fall for cider, warm sake, saketini sipping and more.

With the most love,

Alyssa

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