Can sake go global?

New York City sake brewery Brooklyn Kura has launched a Sake Studies Centre ahead of a partnership with Japan’s Hakkaisan Brewery Co, in a bid to “make sake a global beverage”.

Brooklyn’s new Sake Studies Centre pegs itself as the first of its kinda in the US, offering people keen to know more about the Japan’s famous rice wine introductory classes or the opportunity to become certified as a sake server.

Brooklyn Kura’s Timothy Sullivan is responsible for leading the classes at the new centre, as director of education. Sullivan was awarded the title of Sake Samurai by the Japan Sake Brewers Association in 2007.

The sake brewery is offering an Introduction to Sake course which includes a guided brewery tour, a tasting of the fermentation mash straight from the tank, and a guided tasting of US-made sake wines.

Brooklyn Kura’s sake service course covers sake glassware, serving etiquette, chilled and warm sake service and pouring and presentation. It also considers food and sake pairings.

The new 20,000-square-foot space is more than double the Brooklyn brewery’s previous capacity, offering different in-person and virtual programmes. The brewery originally opened at 34 34th Street in Brooklyn in 2018.

It also recently announced a collaboration with Hakkaisan Brewery Co., based in the central Japan city of Minamiuonuma, Niigata Prefecture.

According to The Japan Times, where this story was first reported, Brian Polen, president of Brooklyn Kura, said: “Our partnership with Hakkaisan led to the joint goal of making sake a global beverage.”

Existing sake products of Brooklyn Kura will be made at a newly built facility from mid-November. Production is slated to start in 2024 for sake co-developed by Hakkaisan Brewery and Brooklyn Kura.