THE AMERICAN DREAM
sake in the US”. SakeOne continues both to
import premium Japanese sake and brew their
own which has proven a great success, their
Momokawa brand is the 5th largest selling sake
brand in retail in the US.
“We produce only the premium saké grade
junmai ginjo, which we craft in various styles
such as nama, genshu, nigori and flavor infused
ginjo sake”. They have 3 brands: Momokawa,
Moonstone and g sake which each target different
markets. “Currently we are producing between
70,000 – 80,000 9L case equivalents per year.
Our intention is to continue to grow and meet
demand as US and International sake consumption
increases. Our kura, as it is equipped today, has a
maximum production capacity of approximately
100,000 9L cases.”
“Our brew staff have been trained by Japanese tojis.
Obviously, we use our own local water just as the
Japanese use their local water. We use Japanese
ingredients wherever possible. That includes our
yeasts, koji spores, fining agents and almost all
of our brewing equipment. To import rice from
Japan would be completely cost prohibitive. All
rice used is Calrose from the Sacramento Valley
and has a minimum seimai buai of 60%”.
GAIJIN 24886
Gaijin 24886 is based in Denver, Colorado and
starting selling sake to several local Asian and
Asian fushion restaurants earlier this year, having
suffered delays due to licensing issues with the
state of Colorado.
Owner and Master Brewer, Marc Hughes, tells
us more: “I fell in love with the idea of sake while
living in Osaka, but didn’t get into the nuts and
bolts until returning to Colorado. My friends
started home brewing beer. I helped them out
a few times but wasn’t totally into it. I decided
to look into how sake is made. It took several
months of searching before I found an old Frank
Ekhard recipe and a book that I had to special
order through the library. The first batch was
made with curiosity which lead to more questions
which took me down the path I’m on today.
I set up in Colarado because I live here and
there is a great community for craft and small
batch things. With the brewery revolution and
the amount of amazing chefs in this state it has
a great support network. I want to make a truly
American sake. Similarly to how American
whiskey will never be Irish or Scotch, but it can
be great. I want to take American ingredients
and make something truly fantastic.
As for rice grades we’re sticking with ginjo for
right now and I’d like to keep the sakes as close
to junmai as possible, but it won’t be possible
with some of the sakes. I’m really happy with
the styles I’m making now, a junmai ginjo using
Denver water, a junmai ginjo using Colorado
mountain water, a ginjo fermented with Colorado
peaches, a black rice sake fermented with black
cherries, and our red rice sake. I would like to
revisit a recipe I worked on a few years back using
pickled cherry blossoms.
MUSEUM OF SAKE JOURNAL 43