The general rule for drinking sake is to “drink it fresh and drink it often.” Yet, like any good rule, it is meant to (sometimes) be broken.

Making up just 10% of all sake produced in Japan today, Yamahai and Kimoto are relics of sake’s 2,000-year-old history and testaments to Japan’s deep commitment to tradition and the past. Both styles depart from today’s modern (read: efficient) way of making a sake yeast starter, opting instead for two extremely old methods.

Commonly referred to as “unfiltered” sake, nigori literally translates to “cloudy” and refers to sake that has a bit of the fermentation mash in the bottle.

There is nothing quite like the arrival of Spring in New England. As winter loosens its grip and the earth wakes from hibernation, a collective excitement for warmer, longer days takes hold. In Japan, this time is marked by the arrival of Namazake, a sake that perfectly captures nature’s annual awakening in a single sip.

Koji is the magical ingredient that makes sake unlike any other beverage in the world. You might even call koji the fairy godmother of sake.

If you’ve ever gazed into a glass of sake and thought, “how the heck does something that looks like water smell like a floral bouquet and taste like a fruit salad?”, yeast is your answer. Besides being the agent changing sugar into alcohol, yeast is responsible for the wild-ranging aromas and flavors found in a glass of sake.

Water plays an extremely important role in the body, weight and texture of sake. It is, after all, 80 percent water!

Looking in your pantry, it’s hard to believe rice, a shelf-stable staple in nearly all Japanese households, imparts such a gamut of flavors to a glass of sake. But alas, locked away inside those tiny grains are the building blocks to a truly exceptional brew.

A day brewing at Kato Sake Works