Falling for Hot Sake

We’re warming up some sake at the taproom, and you can too at home

Serving hot sake is like serving coffee or tea. You can make it in bulk and serve like you would get a cup of coffee at a gas station or a diner. Or, you can warm sake as you would prepare an espresso or a pour over at a local coffee shop. It takes more time, but tastes better. This is how we serve our hot sake.

Our serving temperature is 45ºC/113ºF (jokan temp) but we can serve it at a lower or higher temperature if asked. It’s like a steak house question - “How would you like your steak cooked”. Not many people know how to answer that question for sake, so we recommend 45ºC as the standard, but we wanted you to know its personal preference.

The preparation is fairly simple. Our process is using a sous vide hot water bath kept at 74ºC/165ºF and we place carafes of sake in the bath for about 3 minutes, or until it reaches 45ºC, then pour from the carafe to your glass. At home, if you don’t have a heat-tolerant carafe (which, hey, how many of us do), you could use a mason jar or any heat-tolerant container to place in your water bath. And if you don’t have a sous vide (again, no big), you could do a stovetop water bath or even microwave water to get to temp, just make sure it’s not too hot and the stove is off by the time you pour the sake in your container, as you don’t want to scorch it! Also, please note that if you pour the 45ºC sake to a glass (vs. a mug or ochoco for example), the glass should be slightly thicker and room temperature or warmer, so that it does not crack when introducing hot liquid.

By the way, you can warm any style of sake! My favorite these days is a warmed glass of Nama, but let us know what you like best.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW EVENT CALENDAR

Now that we’ve established a steady flow of operation in our space, we’re introducing some really fun events to add on to the Taproom experience! We love eating delicious food and listening to sweet tunes while drinking sake, so we’re now hosting food pop-ups, vinyl nights and live music! You can find more information on our website or social media, but here’s what’s coming up:

SPEAKING OF EVENTS… OUR Tasting & TOUR PROGRAM is back and better than ever!

Hello avid newsletter readers!

For those I haven’t met yet my name is Evan and I am a brewer here at KSW. You may have seen me sweating in the back carrying some heavy rice around or stirring the tanks while you sipped on your sake :) I’ve been brewing sake with our team here for the last few years and am excited to be sharing some of my knowledge in our new tasting and tour program!

My first experience with Kato Sake Works came one fateful day when our founder and head brewer Shinobu Kato walked into the small craft bottle shop I was working in at the time. He introduced himself with his signature Shinobu charm and handed my co-worker and I a very special (and as I later found out, expensive) anniversary bottle. He instructed us to give the bottle to our boss as a thank you for carrying his sake. My boss was out for the day so naturally my curious co-worker and I decided to open the bottle to try it for ourselves. One delicious sip turned to two and before we knew it the entire bottle was mysteriously empty. Our boss never had to know (if you’re reading this i’m sorry Carlos!). After this I was hooked, I began obsessively researching sake in my free hours sitting in the bottle shop and even decided to drag a mini fridge up four flights of stairs and try home brewing in my tiny Brooklyn apartment. Months later I gathered the courage to make my way to the source and rode my bike to the brewery to ask for a job. As they say, the rest was history!

All this to say, in the not too distant past I knew virtually nothing about sake brewing. Ginjo, Daiginjo, Fune, Moromi, Multiple Parallel Fermentation?! All these terms seemed like a foreign language and completely impossible to wrap my head around. Fortunately I had hours every day at work to pour through books on sake and kind knowledgeable people to help me out along the way. I know not everyone has this luxury!

In this program my goal is to help make the learning process more accessible and make sure people have some fun while doing it, because ultimately that’s what drinking sake is all about! I know that that sake novices, experts, and anyone in between can learn something new about the wonderful world of brewing and hopefully become more knowledgeable and curious sake drinkers. So come hang out, see our facility, check out our active fermentations, enjoy a guided tasting, and hopefully learn a thing or two along the way :) Tickets are available on our website and dates are updated at the beginning of every month.

Hope to see you soon!

-Evan

PLEASE WELCOME KRISSA TO THE TEAM!

Hello! I’m Krissa and I work at Kato Sake Works on Wednesday (come visit.)

I met Shinobu about 6 or so years ago while I was working at KCBC.  Since then, I’ve been following his sake journey and trying to enjoy the wonderful products from the KSW team whenever possible.  It’s been wonderful being able to join KSW and I look forward to learning from these warm, creative, inspiring people who are making some amazing sake.

When I’m not at Kato Sake works I am cooking food, eating food and reading about food. I also am listening to electronic music, eating electronic music and reading about electronic music. I’m also at BODYHOO yoga many times a week, come join me. Most importantly, I devote a good amount of time to my cats and trying to give love to all the cats out there.

- Krissa

PS- We’re releasing a new style of sake soon… it will be available starting this week as a pilot, so come by the Taproom to try it out and pick up a bottle!