Answers to Common Questions About Japanese Sake

Q1: What is sake? Is it a beer?
Is it a wine? Is it a spirit?
Sake is a beverage fermented from rice, which is a grain. This would make it more of a beer than a wine. Yet, sake is not carbonated, and flavor-wise is closer to wine than beer, although it is indeed uniquely different from wine. Sake is not a distilled beverage, and is not even remotely related to gin, vodka or other spirits.

Q2: What is the alcohol content of sake?
Sake is generally between 15% and 17% alcohol.

Q3: How long does it take to brew sake?
Basically about a month. It can be a bit longer for ginjo-shu, including all the steps. Also, this does not include the (usually) six-month period sake is “aged” before release.

Q4: Is sake aged like wine is? Is there such a thing as “vintage” sake? In general, sake is not aged (beyond the six month period mentioned), and is meant to be consumed soon after purchase. If kept cold and dark, it will last six months to a year without degradation in flavor. There are exceptions, as some sake is deliberately aged. There is no such thing as a vintage year in the sake world. Be sure, then, to notice the bottling date on the label. If the sake was brewed in Japan, note that the year 10 (for Heisei 10) is 1998. So a sake with 9.4.23 would have been bottled on April 23, 1997. Avoid! Try to buy a sake bottled within the last year, at least. If you found it refrigerated, take  one more sigh of relief. If not, it may not be totally fresh.

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