Kojimaking for a new sake

Our Toji started the kojimaking for a new upcoming sake today!

Weighing the mold spores- Aspergillus Oryzae

The tool for spreading the mold

Mold spores are sprinkled

Mixing rice and mold spores

The rice needs to rest for a day 

Season II

Sake brewing is a labor intensive, hands on endeavour and the more passion, pain and love that goes into the brewing the more wondrous the final product. A special thanks to those that took the time out to lend a helping hand.

Photos of Anders Nielsen and Sahon Flan.

Our second Sake brewing season is winding down. The last two batches are soon to be pressed and then we will be ready to carefully blend and  pasteurize our six batches from this season to make our Junmai Sake. 
Our focus this season has been to produce the Junmai which is now available in Vinmonopolet outlets throughout Norway. Another exciting development is that this product will soon be available through the LCBO in Ontario, Canada.

We are looking forward to the next brewing season where we will be brewing Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daiginjo Sake……..at Nøgne ø we live for new challenges and this spirit lives in our Hidaka Jima Sake. Junmai Ginjo and Daiginjo brewed in Norway with Ginpu rice from Hokkaido, fantastic! 


To round out the season we will of course follow this up by brewing some of our originals from our very first season in Europe’s very first Sake Brewery.

Sake production

After a long brake we have now started our production again with a Junmai. 
It will be available at Vinmonopolet. 
Brock working on Daki - Daru.

Sake cocktail workshop

It was a blast to have Halvor Digernes (from Fuglen, Oslo) and Benjamin Lee (from St.Lars, Oslo) visiting for a sake cocktail workshop.

One of the successful creation was this :

4 cl Yamahai Motoshibori

4 cl Amontilado Seco Sherry

1 teaspoon Maraschino Liqueur

1 teaspoon Orange Bitter

Shaken!

Norwegian Sake in Vinland.

In August I had the opportunity to return to my home town, Vancouver, and of course I brought back as much of our Hidaka Jima (Nøgne Ø) Sake as I could pack into my suitcase. I was able to present our fine Yamahai Sake for tasting on two evenings at two different Japanese Restaurants. The first was an intimate meeting of former alumni of John Gauntner’s Level II Sake Professional Course. Lori Katakoa hosted the event at Shuraku Restaurant.

She’s the manager of this upscale Izakaya, that has a good showing of different types of Sake and an innovative menu of Japanese delicacies and Sushi. She is a strong local supporter in  raising the profile of Sake in Vancouver. This was a group of experienced discerning Sake tasters and they were duly impressed with Hidaka Jima Sake.

I was also able to piggyback a tasting of our Sake onto a Ginjo Sake/ Food pairing event at the first of a new monthly event, called Sake Sessions, to be held at Hapa Umi Restaurant.

 Our Nøgne Ø Sake is not Ginjo (made with Sake rice polished down to at least 60%) but we made it in with our good name and credentials such as we’re a Yamahai Junmai made with a more uncommon Ginpu rice from Hokkaido. The food pairings were outstanding and this less experienced but very enthusiastic crowd thoroughly enjoyed our Sake.

The popularity of Sake in Canada is steadily growing. There is a ground swell of people looking for the new tastes and nuances of Sake and the way it pairs so well with so many types of food. Sake lovers in Canada have heard rumours about this Hidaka Jima and now a few have even tried it. Who knows, maybe someday soon it will make it across the Atlantic to be enjoyed in Canadian Izakayas, restaurants, and homes!

Sake division

Our great friend, Beau Timken of True Sake in San Francisco, is a player on the world stage spreading the beauty and joy of Sake. And in the spirit of giving back he is auctioning our Sake with 100 % of the proceeds going to the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Effort (www.jcccnc.org). We salute his untiring efforts and vision!

In the latest newsletter (www.truesake.com) you can find out all about this as well as read about Kjetil, our Sake, and a short piece written by me about being a kurabito in Norway.

Norwegian Sake in Seattle and San Francisco

Sake Nomi

Sako Nomi

It is a privilege to have good friends. 

We have good friends all over the world. 

Which is a good thing when we want to pass on the message about the great things we do.


Last month we served Norwegian nihon-shu at Sake Nomi in Seattle (Thanks, Johnnie!) and True Sake in San Francisco (Thanks, Beau!).

Reaching out like this is incredible and the feed back was phenomenal! 

True Sake

True Sake