Craft sake pioneer Inaba to Agave builds a town out of sake

A new rice drink that cannot call itself ‘sake’

Craft sake is a rice-based brewed drink that builds on the methods of making Japanese sake but, legally, cannot be called ‘nihonshu (seishu)’. Under Japan’s liquor tax law, the ingredients of nihonshu are limited to rice, rice koji (steamed rice on which koji mould has been grown) and water. Fermenting with additions such as fruit or herbs places a drink in the category of ‘other brewed alcohol’. On top of that, Japan currently issues no new licences to produce nihonshu. So young brewers who wanted to make sake began working within this new framework, deliberately adding secondary ingredients and the like. In 2022, the Craft Sake Brewery Association was founded, centred on the brewery Inaba to Agave, and Shuhei Okazumi, head of Inaba to Agave, serves as its chair.

A brewery at the core, with ramen shops and hotels around it

Inaba to Agave opened its brewery about five years ago. It is in Oga, in Akita Prefecture on the Sea of Japan coast of northern Honshu, a town known for the custom of the namahage, figures in demon masks, and one struggling with population decline. Since the brewery opened, ramen shops, pizzerias and hotels have opened one after another in the surrounding area. A symbolic example is ‘Oga Shio Ramen Ogaya’, which opened in front of the station in 2023. It began when the chairman of Chikara no Moto Holdings, which operates the ramen chain Ippudo, took a liking to Inaba to Agave’s sake and offered to buy it. As there was no stock available, Okazumi instead proposed opening a ramen shop in Oga, and the company oversaw the recipe. He says he does not want his child, when grown up, to say they come from a ‘town without even a ramen shop’. Laughing as he says so, Okazumi explains that drawing people in is his job, and he aims to make Oga a ‘town of sake’.

‘New sake’ overseas

Outside Japan, such legal distinctions do not matter, and rice-based brewed drinks are all treated simply as ‘SAKE’. According to Okazumi, who is putting great effort into exports, importers in each country introduce the drinks with easily understood terms such as ‘new sake’ and ‘innovative sake’, and drinkers abroad readily accept them with a reaction of ‘so there is a sake like this, too’. On the other hand, there is a lot of opposition to the name ‘craft sake’ even within the association, and Okazumi says he would like to change it if a better name is found.

If you are looking for this category in Europe, look not only for terms such as ‘craft sake’ and ‘new sake’ in the product description but also at the ingredients list on the back label. What has been added to the rice and koji greatly changes the direction of the aroma and acidity. Try tasting it alongside the sake you usually drink and see how the secondary ingredients affect the flavour; you may begin to see what sets this new drink apart.