If you have ever watched The Birth of Sake documentary, you definitely know Tedorigawa sake made by Yoshida Brewery in Ishikawa prefecture. So we sat down with Asami Tasaka and Masayo Nuttall from World Sake Imports UK to talk about the brewery and try three of their excellent sake.
This is the first episode in the Sake Around the World series. Today I am talking with Samuel Boulton about sake in Birmingham. In early 2022 Sam opened Shibuya Underground a Testing menu cocktail bar specialising in Japanese sake and shochu. So if you are in Birmingham, living there or travelling, stop by Shibuya Underground or The Pineapple Club and have a chat with Sam over a glass or two of sake or one of his cocktails.
In this episode of Sugidama Podcast, I sat down with Oliver Hilton-Johnson from Tengu Sake and discussed and tasted amazing sake from the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute. If you want to know more about Noguchi sake before buying or ordering it, this episode is for you!
The wait is over and Season 4 is on with a lot of interesting interviews, breweries overviews, tastings, special episodes and even a competition together with London Sake, which will be announced later. In this episode, I am talking to a bunch of very cool people I met at the British Sake Association Grand Tasting of Sake in October 2022.
In this episode, I share observations from the IWC Sake judging this year and the following Award Winning Sake Tasting event at the Embassy of Japan. You will also hear Oliver Hilton-Johnson from Tengu Sake, who was in Episode 09, Marie Cheong-Thong, the Chairman of the British Sake Association, who was in Episode 32, Muneki Matsumoto, President and CEO of the Tosa Brewing Company, a maker of the famous Keigetsu sake, Tracey Delaney from The Sparkling Sake Brewery we talked with in Episode 28, and Robin Sola, the owner of the Sorakami Sake.
Discussing modern sake trends with legendary Jim Rion and Andrew Russell from the excellent Sake Deep Dive Podcast.
In this episode, I am talking to Tom Wilson, a master brewer and owner of the first UK sake brewery, Kanpai London. Kanpai represents a modern approach to sake brewing but follows the same philosophy as most brewers in Japan for hundreds of years: to make the best possible sake.
The real revolution in sake-making happened after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate: during the Meiji era but particularly at the beginning of the 20th century. In this episode I am talking about huge changes in the sake industry, the foundation of the National Research Institute of Brewing and the development of yamahai and sokujo brewing methods.
Sake is not a very easy topic. If you want to understand it well, you need to do some studying. You can buy a book or two about sake and read them. You can go to sake events and probably join a sake promoting organisation such as the British Sake Association. Finally, you can go to a sake course and get a sake qualification. My guest for this episode, Marie Cheong-Thong, a certified WSET sake, wine and spirits educator, freelance writer and the Chairman of the British Sake Association among other titles, is talking about all these options as well as about plenty of other sake related topics.
How sake brewing was evolving during the Edo period: technological innovations, the end of all-season brewing and why the kimoto method, which is not only about yamaoroshi!
