Sake Day Preview 2025

0:21Hello, everybody, and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America's first sake podcast, and I am your host, John Puma. I run the internet Sake Discord and also Reddit's r slash Sake community. And I'm your host, Timothy Sullivan. I'm a Sake Samurai. I'm the Director of Education at the Sake Study Center, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website. And every week, John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand. Hey, Tim, how you doing? I'm good. How are you, John? Great, great. So my understanding is that today we've got something a little bit different.

1:03We're going to flip the script slightly. Is that right? That's right. We are going to start with some drinking and then get to some thinking. All right. Starting with drinking. Excellent. That sounds fantastic. It's the best way for me to start a podcast, I think, is to start with the drinking. So we're not going to be tasting the same thing today, but we will be tasting things from the same brewery. Do I have this right in my head? Yes. We need a little something to sip on while we talk about today's episode. So let's flip the script, as you said, and start with our kanpai. John, why don't you let us know what brand we're featuring and which sake you're tasting?

1:41So we're going to be tasting some Brooklyn Kura. It's a local sake that we're both very familiar with. And I'm going to be having a newer product from them. I'm a fan of this one. It's the Ashokan Junmai Ginjo in the Yamada Nishiki Rice. and they're milling it down to 60 % of its original size. Sake meter value is plus three and ABV is 15%. When I first heard the name Shokan, I thought it was like some kind of Japanese word. I didn't understand it. And then I was told later on that it's actually named for the reservoir upstate where they get the water, which I thought was interesting. A bit of an anticlimactic finish for that one for me.

2:27Tim, what about you? What are you drinking? I'm going to be drinking a sake we featured a few times on the podcast before. It's the Brooklyn Kura Classic Blue Door. This is one of their foundational sakes that they've had for years. And it is a Junmai sake that's made with Calrose and Yamada Nishiki rice milled to 70%. The sake meter value is plus two. We have an acidity of 1.8 and a little bit higher alcohol percentage of 17%. And this is also a Nama or unpasteurized sake. Yeah. Why don't we have a couple of sips and then we'll get started talking about our topic today. Which, Tim, why don't you begin opening up your sake and I'll quickly mention what our topic is.

3:16Sake Day is coming up and every year it feels like there's more sake events for Sake Day. and we think that it's kind of cool to do a little primer and kind of get everybody up to speed on what's coming. And, you know, if they're local to any of the areas or feel like traveling, you know, what's in store for them if they decide to go to one of these Saki Day events? In some cases, Tim or I have been to some of these events and we have some hands-on that we can talk about, about our experiences. So Tim, do you have that blue door opened up? I got it poured. and John I just want to tag on to what you just said sake day is our Christmas Thanksgiving and 4th of July all rolled into one for sake people like you and me this is the highlight of our year so we got to plan our strategy for getting to as many of these events as we can so I'm so excited to go over the calendar with you from literally from coast to coast we have sake events coming up quite literally yes so I've got my blue door poured how about you John?

4:22yeah so I'm going to grab this Asakon and I've got that in the glass now Tim I also think if I'm not mistaken this Asakon is also a blend which I find a very interesting thing that we'll probably need to go in depth on this in the future yeah alright well John here's to Sake Day in advance here's to Sake Day Tim And it's weird to do this so early in a show, but here we go. Kanpai. Kanpai.

4:53Now my blue door from Brooklyn Kura is one of their sakes they've made for a long time. It's a little more rice forward, but you get that richness from the unpasteurized side of it. really food friendly and just a great foundational sake for pairing with food. You can open it and pair it with just about anything. It's really great. Always a winner. Nice. And this Ahsoka, despite being newer to their line of sakes, it's very light, very crisp. And there is a really nice, pleasant acidity across the whole taste, which I really enjoy. So yeah, this is some good stuff. Can't go wrong. We're going to start out.

5:41And I want to say that this calendar from mid-September to just after Sake Day is going to be available in our show notes. So if any of the events are near you or you want to travel to them, if you want details on where to buy tickets, that will all be in our show notes. So please visit sakerevolution.com. Check out the show notes for this episode, and we will have a full calendar of all the events we're highlighting today. Wonderful, wonderful. Cool. So, Tim, where do you want to start? Well, first, I think we should take just one minute and talk about what Sake Day is. When is it and what is it?

6:23I mean, we have an episode about that, but I'll let the reminder happen in this case. Oh, thank you. Yeah, so Sake Day is October 1st, right? Yep, that's the day. And what's the deal? What's it all about? Nihonchi no hii. It is the day the brewing season starts. That's right. So it's a day that is set aside to kind of celebrate the kickoff of the brewing season. And it's a day to stop and celebrate all things sake and focus the world's attention on the beverage that we love so much. And I think it's a great day to celebrate. And, you know, beer has St. Patrick's Day. Tequila has Cinco de Mayo.

7:06Is that what beer has St. Patrick's Day? I don't know. I don't know if the Irish agree with beer having St. Patrick's Day necessarily, but we'll, you know, we'll let them write in and tell us what they think about that. Well, I'm just glad sake had... Wait, does tequila have beer? Cinco de Mayo. No, am I wrong? Am I way off base? I don't know. Now, all right. But we have Sake Day. We have Sake Day. There's no ambiguity about it. Sake Day is dedicated to sake. It is. And it is October 1st. This is factual. The events start happening in late September through early October. So all cluster around October 1st.

7:58And I thought it would be great to do a little overview for all of our listeners all around the country to see which Sake Day events they might want to go to. So coming up first is the 9th Annual San Diego Sake Festival in celebration of Sake Day. And that's going to be on Saturday, September 20th. so this is san diego california's largest sake celebration and have you ever been to this one uh san diego you say san diego no i've been to a different san based we'll get there soon we'll get there soon but no i've not i've not been to san diego since i was a teenager so it's been a while all right well this is a sake festival that's been going for nine years.

8:46So that's a pretty long time for celebrating Sake Day in San Diego. This is going to be, again, Saturday, September 20th. They have a VIP entry at 2.30, general admission at 3.30, and the tickets are on sale already. So if you are in the San Diego area, this is one not to be missed. The tickets are on Eventbrite, but again, just visit sakerevolution.com. We have a YouTube video from a past year, so you can kind of get the vibe for this event. And then tickets will have a link for that. So Tim, have you ever been to this one? No, I've never been to the San Diego Sake Festival, but it has been around for a while.

9:26Yeah. And definitely the early, early side of Sake Day celebrations. Of course, yes. Okay, so what's next? We're going to stay on the West Coast for what I would call, you know, my favorite phrase, the big kahuna right here. Sake de San Francisco. Now this one. Oh my gosh. We've both been. Yeah. This one I've been to. When is this year's happening? This year, it's Saturday, September the 27th. So they're getting in there ahead of time. Yeah. That's good. It's on a weekend, which is always appreciated. Yeah. I think it's important for them to do a weekend. It's going to be from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Hotel Kabuki.

10:11and there are tickets online at Eventbrite. But last time I checked, this event is already sold out. Yeah, this one sells out fast. And I don't even think it matters how soon we would have done this episode. This would have sold out before. It's a very, very popular event. There's a lot of people there. It's probably the biggest of the events we're going to talk about. But man, it's a lot of people. It sells out real fast. It's a great time though. Yeah. And this is the 20th anniversary for Sake Day San Francisco. So this is the first Sake Day event that was held in the States. This is the big granddaddy event, and it is very popular, very successful.

10:57You and I have both been. So let's hear about your experience at Sake Day San Francisco. Sure. So for me, it was a very special event because not only was it my first trip to Sake Day San Francisco, but it was coming out of the pandemic. It was the first one they've done since then. And it was for me and my shell, like the first time we kind of went to a big social event, you know, outside of like New York. And so going over there, getting to the West coast and, you know, during the pandemic, we met all of these really wonderful people, um, on the discord and on different sake tasting events on virtual, like on nomis and stuff like that.

11:32And so it was great to finally see and meet and drink with so many of these people that I had known, quote unquote, but had never actually sat and broke bread with or come pied with. And it was a really wonderful experience. And on top of that, just the event itself is just so big and just so much wonderful sake. And if you are an East Coast person, there's something you should know. And that is the West Coast, even from the same importers, gets different sake. You can try all sorts of stuff that you can't get in New York. yeah i went last year for the first time and i was pouring hakai-san sake as a vendor and i got got to break away for a little amount of time and walk around but it's on two floors there are dozens and dozens of tables representing different brands distributors importers and it was so full of sake goodness, you could not believe it.

12:33So really highly recommended. And for this year, there's actually going to be, I'm privy to a little bit of insider information. There's going to be, yes, there's going to be a sake samurai reunion and sake samurai table at this year's Sake Day San Francisco. So how are you going to do this? You guys split your time? Like what's going on? Yeah. So there's one table dedicated to sake samurai and they will be pouring, I think, every 45 minutes. It's going to change. A couple samurais are going to come in and pour certain sakes. And throughout the night, you can meet all the different sake samurais from the years.

13:11And I'll be on one of those shifts when I'm not at the Hakkaisan table. Wonderful. So yeah, if you are there, you can meet Tim twice. They meet two different completely different people. Yes, and if you say you are a fan of Sake Revolution, you will get a sticker. Oh, is that it? So, John, the next event is hitting very close to home. Yeah. Yeah, so the next event is October the 1st on Sake Day itself on a Wednesday. and it is pardon the strong self-promotion here. Shameless. Shameless self-promotion here. The shameless self-promotion here. It is Sake Day, Sake Revolution Live. And so it's going to be me and it's going to be you, Tim.

14:07And we're going to be at Brooklyn Kura and we're going to do a live episode of the show on stage. There's going to be sake to drink. There's going to be, you know, other, I'm sure there'll be other fun people to hang out with there as well. There always are. And, yeah, we're going to do a special episode. We're going to have a guest, which is going to be a lot of fun. So, Tim, who's going to be our special guest? We are going to have Byron Stitham, the owner and brewer from Proper Sake in Nashville, Tennessee. Byron is going to fly up and join us as our special guest. and we're going to be including two sakes from his brewery as the tasting flight that every attendee who comes to our live recording is going to be able to taste along with us at the Brooklyn Kura Taproom.

14:58So it's going to be fantastic. Now we have to mention we did this last year with Shinobu Kato and Brandon Dawn from Kato Sake Works and Brooklyn Kura. So we're continuing on with the theme of having a U.S. brewer in the house with us. And I don't know about you, John, but when we did our live recording last year for Sake Day, I had an absolute blast. Like it was so much fun. It was so much fun. It was. I had a great time also. It was just such a, you know, just blast is the right word. Yeah. It was such a fun time. And I was, I think I had to like get on a flight the next day too. So I was very nervous about making sure that everything was in order and all that.

15:37So I'm really looking forward to being able to enjoy it a little bit more and have a little bit more relaxation on it. Very excited, though. It's going to be such a great event. So if you are in the New York City area, and we are the only event I found that's actually happening on Sake Day proper, October 1st, if you're in the New York City area, please join us at the Brooklyn Career Taproom. Tickets are available at brooklyncareer.com and also on Eventbrite. And as always, for all these events, just visit our show notes to get the link directly to tickets. And this is an affordable event too.

16:13It's only$15. That includes entrance to the live recording, tasting flight of two sakes. There will be other sakes available for purchase along with snacks, but it's a great affordable price to come in and be with some fellow sake nerds for Sake Day. Yeah. I hope you can get over there and join us. It'll be a lot of fun. So, Tim, what's after that? Okay, after that, we have another New York City sake event. This is World Sake Day New York City 2025, and it is on Friday, October 3rd from 5 to 9 p.m. at the W Loft rooftop in Brooklyn. Now, have you been to this event before? They've had it for a few years now.

16:56No. So last year, as mentioned, I was going out of the country right after our event. So I missed everything else that went on that weekend, which I'm very sad about. It was nice to go on vacation. So I'm not complaining too loudly. This does look like a lot of fun, though. Have you ever been to the W Loft in Brooklyn? No, I have not. But I do have some details about this event. The admission is$65 and that will get you 15 tasting tickets. Okay. And then they say they're going to have 35 Japanese and U.S. sake breweries represented. Okay. And the tickets will be available on Eventbrite. And again, see our show notes for more details.

17:41So moving on, that's October 3rd, which is the Friday. And moving to the Saturday. So this is that valuable weekend right after Sake Day. Yes. A lot of events happen. Yes. Saturday, we've got Denver's Queen City Sake Festival for those in the Denver area or those who would like to be in the Denver, Colorado area. This is an event for you. And this is going to be Saturday, October 4th from 1 to 4 p.m. Mountain Time. Ooh, afternoon. It's a little day drinking going on. All right. Now, did you know Denver was known as Queen City? No, I thought that was like Charlotte. I don't know. They say it's Queen City, so I did not know that.

18:28This is an event that features over 100 sakes, and they have a few different tiers. They have a VIP early access ticket, and they also have a general admission ticket. And it looks like it comes with a free locally handmade sake cup as part of your admission. And I have a video of this event as well. You can check out on our show notes. and it looks like a whole lot of fun. This is held at a place called Finn's Manor in Denver. And it is going to be a fun afternoon of hashtag day drinking. I've actually never been, not only have I not been to this event, I've actually never been to Denver. Don't get out much.

19:14Go to Japan a lot, that's about it. Yeah, well, on Saturday, October 4th, there's this event in Denver, but there is competition on the East Coast. Uh-oh. What else is there? The other event happening on Saturday, October 4th is Sake Day East. Ooh, I've heard of this one. Yes. So it's called Sake Day East. This is New England's largest Sake Day celebration. They've been doing this for several years. Have you been to Sake Day East, John Puma? No, no. Like I said, I don't get out much.

19:50well i've been to sake de east several years and it is very fun this is an interesting event they do the tasting event which is your standard walk around tasting but they have a pre-event guided seminars so they're doing a little education piece that starts at like 3 to 5 p.m Oh, okay.

20:44five or six o 'clock if you want early admission or not. So there's a lot of options, a lot of education, a lot of tasting you can do. This is a really rich event. Lots to check out here. Nice. Nice. Being on the East Coast is something that maybe I should consider. It's only an Amtrak away. That's right. Yeah. Fantastic. So it's a great event. I've really enjoyed it the past years that I've been able to go there. And I know that Brooklyn Kura will be represented along with a whole bunch of other distributors. The one year that I went, they had a cheese purveyor there who did these little bento boxes of cheese.

21:25And you could buy those with your sake and like nibble on the cheese and walk around. It was great. I loved it. Nice. Well, if you're on the East Coast and going up to Boston is a little out of the way for you, perhaps you will enjoy going down to dc because on sunday october 5th there is the dc sake co kanpai to sake day in dc that's it where is it it's i think it's in dc uh i think that you're doing kanpai and you're having sake in dc this is uh run by dc sake co because our name is right in the front and we've had reiko from there on the show before and so she's a friend of the show yeah so the unique thing about this dc sake co event it's that it's going to be held at a restaurant they're doing this in collaboration with a restaurant in dc called love makoto which is a fabulous restaurant so i think they had the ability to do these seated luncheons as a first step and then they do general admission later in the day so this is this is an afternoon day drinking event, which again, two thumbs up.

22:33We wholeheartedly approve. It allows you to go on and enjoy the rest of your night. But this is just fantastic. Yeah. Let's say you are on the East Coast, but DC is kind of far and Boston's kind of far. You happen to be in New York on Sunday, October the 5th. Well, we've got you covered. There's an event in New York for that as well. Tim, what do we have? Yeah, so this is another little bit of shameless self-promotion. You can't deny us that. Brooklyn Kura is going to be doing its own celebration for Sake Day on Sunday, October 5th. And that's going to be in the Brooklyn Kura Taproom. We're going to be inviting a number of distributors to come.

23:19And tickets will be available on brooklynkura.com and also on Eventbrite. And this will be a really fun walk around tasting. We're going to have some guest chefs come in and do pop-up food. We're going to have a DJ playing music. We're going to have an enhanced interactive brewery tour. We go around the brewery and you're going to be able to taste steamed sake rice by the steamer. You can drink moromi in the fermentation room. You can do a whole lot of tasting of koji by the koji room. And you can also taste some kasu by our Yabuta sake press. So as we walk through the brewery, you get to nibble on all the stages of the sake brewing process.

24:06And it's really fun. We don't do this very often, but for special events like Sake Day, we're going to do these interactive brewery tours. And Brandon is also going to get out his Shizuku drip as well. Oh, nice. Those are always fun. And he only does those for special occasions too. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. So if you can come out to Brooklyn Kura on Sunday, October 5th from five to 9 PM, we'd love to see you. It'll be a great event with so many types of sake. All our importer and distributor friends will be there. Nice. Nice. Sounds good. So yeah, we've got our next event here. So we're moving past, past sake day weekend and moving into Friday, Friday, October the 10th.

24:51And this is SakeCon, which I love the name. SakeCon Sake Day NYC 2025. And Tim, tell us all about SakeCon. This is going to be on Friday, October 10th from 5 to 10 p.m. Eastern. And this is going to be at an event space in Manhattan. So if you're in the city and you want to go to evening time Sake event and you kind of miss all the stuff around, The first, this is a great event that will follow up a little bit later. There are, just like many other events, there are some early bird options to get in early, a general admission. Prices range from$35 to$45. That's interesting. Cool. Yeah. So if you want to look up the SakeCon Sake Day New York City 2025, that's on Eventbrite.

25:48or you can also visit sake revolution.com. So John, that's, is our calendar. I think that's nice. Sake day 2025 is probably the most robust offering of events that I've ever seen. What do you think? Yeah, I think that, and I think that every year we get a little bit more, which I love. I think it's great to have, to have options, to have variety. And, and, you know, America is a damn big place. And so having events all over the country, it's good for people who are just not necessarily just in New York or California. I'm talking to you, Denver. I'm talking to you, Boston, and I'm talking to you, DC.

26:27I think it's really awesome that we've got these things going on outside the big city. So where are you going to be? All right. So I'm definitely going to be at Sake de San Francisco. Okay. And it goes without saying that I'm going to be at the live recording of Sake Revolution on the 1st. Yes, I'll be there. And then I'm going to be at Sake Day Brooklyn Kura on the 5th on that Sunday. And those are the ones I'm guaranteed to be at for sure. Cool. What about you? Unfortunately, I will definitely not be in San Francisco, but I will absolutely be at Brooklyn Kura for our live show. And I honestly haven't decided if I'm going to do...

27:10Part of me wants to go up to Boston. I haven't gone to Boston in like 15 years and it seems like it would be a fun thing.

27:19And, you know, so maybe that, maybe I'll do the sake con thing. Maybe I'll do the sake day Brooklyn Kura if I don't go to Boston, because I don't think I can do both. So, you know, I'll figure it out. I'm still, for me, my mind is kind of early. I'm going to try and suss out what I, what I'm feeling and how I want to do this. But I'm excited to get out there and go to some fun places and sip sake with folks. I think it's going to be a good time. Yeah. And that's why I wanted to do this episode a little bit in advance so that we could be like Paul Revere and get the word out there and let all the sake lovers know when the events are happening.

27:58If people do want to travel, in my book, it's totally worth it. If you want to go to Boston, it's a great city to visit for a weekend or a long weekend. And if Sake Day East is your anchor for that visit, that's great. That's a wonderful thing to do for a getaway. And if you see John or myself out at a Sake Day event, please say hello as a listener and you too can get a free sticker. So now I have promising stickers. You are too. I'm on it. All right. Great. So JP, let's check in with our sakes. We've had our Brooklyn Kuras in the glass for a little bit. I didn't finish my glass at all, Tim. That's right.

28:41So you're not re-pouring right now. I am totally not re-pouring right now. That sound was stirring vigorously. All right. Now, I will have to say that my sake, despite having been in a bottle that's been sitting on my desk for the past 40 minutes or so, probably a lot cooler than it usually is because you bought me a wonderful birthday gift. Happy birthday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you got me this husky bottle cooler. And it's a metal device that you wrap around your bottle and it keeps it nice and cold even when you're doing a long podcast with your friend Tim. Yeah, it's like a stainless steel insulating sleeve that kind of screws over the bottle and the neck of the bottle sticks out the top.

29:29And it keeps your sake chilled at the table for up to four hours. And I thought, who better to have this than my podcast buddy, John Puma. So happy birthday. Having just poured and sipped a little bit more, I will tell you, it keeps it cool for at least 40 minutes. All right, good. So far, so good. 40 minutes and counting. 40 minutes and counting. How is your nama dealing with the warmth? Hmm. Well, I do not have that cooler. So my sake in the glass has warmed up just a little bit. And as you would expect, the warmer temperature, just a few degrees warmer, it brings out a little more of the nuttiness and riciness in this sake.