Information included in the LA Sake Festival Booklet

Brand Naming Sake
When someone creates a brand name for sake, often times they will use old traditional commodities, a famous person’s name, or lucky Japanese characters and animals. Each sake brewery expresses the policy and history of their sake making, its origin, name of a place, and natural environment when naming their sake.

Classification
The sake classifications are roughly divided into Daiginjo, Ginjo, Junmai, Honjozo, and Others. But within each category, some sake are even classified with more details and subcategories..

Brewery
From major manufacturers, medium-small business to family owned breweries, there are about 2000 sake breweries in Japan.

Regions
Just like America having 50 states, Japan has 47 prefectures, most all of which all are very active in making sake. Every prefecture has their own distinguished taste. Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures are well known for their top quality water, as in Akita and Niigata, they are known for their excellence in rice.

Rice Remaining Ratio
Sake is produced by the multiple parallel fermentation of polished rice. Premium sake is brewed with special polished rice in which the starch component is concentrated at the center of the grain, with proteins, food ash, fats and vitamins located toward the outside. Rice remaining ratio means the rice has been polished so that no more than 70% of the original size of the grains remains. With increased milling, one can remove more of the fats, proteins, and amino acids that lead to unwanted flavors and aromas in the brewing process. Less than 75% of the rice remaining ratio is used in sake making. Ginjo-shu’s rice remaining ratio is less than 60% and Daiginjo-shu’s rice remaining ratio is less than 50%.

Best Serving Temperature
Sake is served cold, hot or room tempapture depending on the preference of the drinker and on the type of sake. The preferable temperature will be 50-60°F for the fragrant type, 42-50°F for the light and smooth type, 50-113°F for the rich type, and 44-77°F for the mature type. The most common way to serve sake in the United States is to heat it to body temperature (37°C/98.6°F), but professional sake tasters prefer room temperature (20°C/68°F), and chilled sake (10°C/50°F) is growing in popularity.

SMV (Sake Meter Value)
A general method in which you measure how sweet or dry the sake is determined by the SMV (Sake Meter Value.) Pure water is 39°F, which is expressed as “SMV ±0.” The greater the content of sugar, the larger (i.e., heavier) the specific gravity becomes; the "sake meter value" goes to the "minus" side. An increasing "plus" reading indicates a greater dryness, and a decreasing "minus" reading indicates a greater sweetness. However, the sweetness or dryness also differs depending on the amount of acidity in the "sake". When the acidity is high, one is said to feel dryness, and when it is low, one is said to feel sweetness.

Acidity
Lactic acids, citric acids, and malic acids are contained in the "sake". These acids are important ingredients that compose the taste of "sake." Higher acidity doesn’t simply indicate that the sake is sour. It more likely spices up the taste of the sake and makes it sharper and richer.

Amino Acidity
There are about 20 different amino acids included in Sake. Amino acid content is just as subjective and vague. Most sake has an amino acid content of somewhere between 0.8 and 1.2. A low number generally indicates a straightforward or delicate sake with a narrow bandwidth of flavor, and a higher number indicates a richer, settled sake, often with significant more "umami." Often, too high an amino acid content can correspond to roughness and off-flavors, elements that just don't seem to belong in the flavor profile. Normally, amino acidity in sake is about 1.3 ~ 1.7 degrees.

Distributor
The sakes are imported from Japan, or produced in America, to be sold to retailers and restaurants.

Importer
An enterprise, which imports the sakes from Japan.