Six short chapters — the same six as the quiz. Read one, then take its deck. Every answer in the quiz is somewhere on this page.
Chapter 1 · TEMPERATURE · FROM SNOW TO SCALDING
温度
Japanese has a name for sake at nearly every five degrees. Learn the names and you can order exactly what you want — chilled, room temperature, or warm.
Ten names, from snow to scalding
Name
Reading
Temperature
The feeling
雪冷え
yuki-bie
about 5°C
“Snow chill” — very cold; aromas stay closed
花冷え
hana-bie
about 10°C
“Flower chill” — a cool spring day
涼冷え
suzu-bie
about 15°C
“Cool chill” — just out of a cool cellar
常温
jōon
about 20°C
Room temperature
日向燗
hinata-kan
about 30°C
“Sunshine warm” — barely warm
人肌燗
hitohada-kan
about 35°C
“Skin warm” — body temperature
ぬる燗
nuru-kan
about 40°C
“Lukewarm” — gentle and round
上燗
jō-kan
about 45°C
“Fine warm” — a little steam as you pour
熱燗
atsu-kan
about 50°C
“Hot” — the classic hot sake
飛び切り燗
tobikiri-kan
55°C and up
“Extra hot” — beyond hot
The word that trips people up: 冷や
Before refrigerators, “hiya” (冷や) simply meant unheated — room temperature. Old-school menus still use it that way. If you want your sake cold, ask for reishu (冷酒).
Most sake is pasteurized — hi-ire (火入れ) — twice: once before storage and once at bottling. The “nama” words on a label tell you which of those two steps was skipped.
Raw, once, twice
On the label
Before storage
At bottling
In short
(standard sake)
Pasteurized
Pasteurized
Twice — stable for shipping and shelf life
生酒 namazake
No
No
Never pasteurized. Also called nama-nama
生貯蔵酒 nama-chozo
No
Pasteurized
“Stored nama” — raw in the tank, heated on the way into the bottle
生詰め酒 nama-zume
Pasteurized
No
“Bottled nama” — heated into the tank, bottled raw
The sake year
冬Winter: brewing season (寒造り) and freshly pressed shiboritate
春Spring: new sake arrives; a green sugidama hangs at the brewery
夏Summer: sake rests in the tank
秋Autumn: hiyaoroshi is released
寒造りkanzukuri
Brewing in the cold months. Cold keeps unwanted microbes down. Some modern kura brew year-round (四季醸造, shiki-jōzō).
しぼりたてshiboritate
Freshly pressed new sake, released soon after pressing — usually winter to early spring. Fresh and lively.
ひやおろしhiyaoroshi
Rested over summer and released in autumn, usually pasteurized only once (the nama-zume style).
杉玉sugidama
A ball of cedar hung outside a brewery. Green means new sake is ready; it turns brown over the months, like a calendar of the sake’s maturity.
酒造年度（BY）shuzō nendo · BY
The brewing year runs July 1 to June 30. “R5BY” on a back label means Reiwa 5 brewing year — July 2023 to June 2024.
Sake rice (酒造好適米) is not the rice you eat. The grains are larger, and many have an opaque, starchy core called shinpaku (心白) that lets koji mold grow inward.
Two jobs for rice: koji-mai and kake-mai
麹米kōji-mai
Rice used to grow koji. Many brewers put their best rice here, because koji shapes the flavor most.
掛米kake-mai
Steamed rice added straight to the mash. Most of the rice in a batch is kake-mai.
So a back label that reads 麹米：山田錦 / 掛米：五百万石 means the koji was made from Yamada Nishiki, and the rest of the rice is Gohyakumangoku.
Five rices worth knowing
Rice
Home ground
Known for
山田錦 Yamada Nishiki
Hyogo
“The king of sake rice.”
五百万石 Gohyakumangoku
Niigata
The light, clean tanrei style
雄町 Omachi
Okayama
One of the oldest lines; fans call themselves “Omachists”
美山錦 Miyama Nishiki
Nagano, Tohoku
Grows well in cold regions
越淡麗 Koshitanrei
Niigata
Yamada Nishiki × Gohyakumangoku, bred for daiginjo
Koshihikari (コシヒカリ), Niigata’s famous rice, is table rice — delicious, but not sake rice.
Reading the polishing ratio
精米歩合 (seimai-buai) is the share of each grain that remains after polishing. 60% means 40% was polished away; 40% means 60% was polished away.
A back label packs a lot into a few words. Learn a dozen of them and any sake list becomes readable.
The grades (特定名称)
Grade
Added brewer’s alcohol?
Polishing ratio
純米 junmai
No — just rice, koji and water
No minimum
純米吟醸 junmai ginjo
No
60% or lower
純米大吟醸 junmai daiginjo
No
50% or lower
本醸造 honjozo
A small amount
70% or lower
吟醸 ginjo
A small amount allowed
60% or lower
大吟醸 daiginjo
A small amount allowed
50% or lower
普通酒 futsūshu
Outside these grades — “table sake”
—
Ginjo and daiginjo also call for ginjo-zukuri: slow, cool fermentation. In honjozo, the alcohol is added to shape aroma and flavor — not just to stretch the batch.
Words you will meet on the label
原酒genshu
Undiluted — no water added after pressing. Usually higher in alcohol, often 17–20%.
無濾過muroka
Not charcoal-filtered. Often a touch of color and a fuller flavor.
生nama
Unpasteurized — see Chapter 2.
無濾過生原酒muroka nama genshu
All three at once: not charcoal-filtered, unpasteurized and undiluted. Bold — keep it cold.
にごりnigori
Coarsely pressed, so some rice solids pass through and the sake is cloudy. Styles range from dry to sweet.
The numbers on the back
日本酒度nihonshu-do · SMV
A specific-gravity reading. Higher (+) tends to read drier; lower (−) tends to read sweeter.
酸度sando · acidity
How much acid is in the sake. Higher acidity can make sake taste drier and sharper.
So 日本酒度 +8 with 酸度 1.2 will usually read on the drier side. These numbers are a rough guide only — acidity and temperature change how sweet a sake tastes, and your tongue gets the final say.
Sake is neither wine nor beer. Its fermentation is a unique parallel fermentation (並行複発酵): koji turns starch into sugar while yeast turns that sugar into alcohol — at the same time, in the same tank.
From rice to bottle
精米Polishing the rice
洗米・浸漬Washing and soaking
蒸しSteaming
製麹Making koji
酒母Building the yeast starter
三段仕込みThe mash, in three additions
発酵Fermentation (moromi)
搾りPressing
瓶詰めFiltering, pasteurizing, resting, bottling
The starter, three ways
酒母・酛shubo · moto
The yeast starter: a small, strong culture of yeast that seeds the main mash.
生酛kimoto
The traditional starter: natural lactic acid bacteria, and workers ramming the mash with poles (山卸, yama-oroshi). Slow and labor-heavy; often gives deep, savory sake.
山廃yamahai
Short for 山卸廃止酛 — kimoto without the pole-ramming, still with natural lactic acid. Often deeper and more savory, with lively acidity — though every kura does it its own way.
速醸sokujō
Lactic acid is added directly. Faster and more stable — today’s standard.
Three additions over four days
In sandan-jikomi (三段仕込み), rice, koji and water go into the tank in three stages over four days — hatsuzoe (初添), a rest day called odori (踊り), nakazoe (仲添) and tomezoe (留添) — so the yeast is never overwhelmed.
Pressing and what is left
雫酒shizuku
Drip-pressed: the mash hangs in bags and only the drops that fall on their own are collected. Gentle and costly — often reserved for competition sake.
酒粕sake kasu
The lees left after pressing. Great in marinades, kasu-jiru soup and amazake.
The people
杜氏tōji
The master brewer who leads the brewing team. Echigo tōji from Niigata are one of the best-known guilds.
蔵元kuramoto
The brewery owner — not the same person as the tōji.