March 28, 2024 • 25 mins
Episode 164. On New Year's Day, 2024, the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture was the epicenter of a major earthquake measuring a 7.6 on the Richter scale. The affected areas are especially well known for sake brewing and in Ishikawa in particular, 24 out of 33 Ishikawa Sake Brewery Association member breweries suffered damage, with 8 suffering complete destruction. While the news of the earthquake and the recovery efforts have fallen out of the headlines, we wanted to offer our support and good wishes to the affected breweries inside Ishikawa and the surrounding prefectures as well, as they continue their road to recovery and rebuilding. One thing we can all do to support the sake industry is easy - ordering more sake from the affected regions and keeping an eye out for Noto sakes when they make their return to the market. We profile one such sake in this episode - Hakuto Tokubetsu Junmai. We look forward to supporting this brand and many others whenever they are able to restart brewing in their repaired facilities. Look for updates on this in future episodes! #SakeRevolution
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Puma (00:21):
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Sake Revolution.
This podcast, and I'm one ofyour hosts.
My name is John Puma.
I'm from the Sake Notes.
I'm also the guy who, managesthe internet's sake discord as
well as Reddit's r slash sakecommunity.
Timothy Sullivan (00:37):
And I'm your host, Timothy Sullivan.
I'm a sake samurai.
I'm a sake educator, as well asthe founder of the Urban Sake
website.
And every week, John and I willbe here tasting and chatting
about all things sake and doingour best to make it fun and easy
to understand.
John Puma (00:52):
Hello, Tim.
How are you today?
I'm good.
I'm good.
Timothy Sullivan (00:54):
Hello, John.
We always try to make thingsfun, don't we?
But our topic for this week isnot especially fun.
John Puma (01:01):
It's not fun unfortunately.
But I do think that sometimesyou do need to take a step back
and and I think we need to, wehave a voice and we have people
who tune into our show everyweek.
in times of concern need to useyour voice to draw attention to
to bad things that happen andand give people the power to
(01:23):
help make them better
Timothy Sullivan (01:24):
Yeah.
today, we're going to be talkingabout the earthquake that
happened in Japan on New Year'sday.
And that was all over the newson New Year's day.
But one thing that concerns meis that it's really fallen off
the radar of, the States.
And we just wanted to do anepisode that was focused on the
(01:45):
severe impact of this earthquakeon the sake brewing industry,
especially in Ishikawa.
And it's just not getting enoughcoverage in my book.
John Puma (01:56):
Now I think that for a lot of people.
After the 2011 earthquake it'sanything that's not with
potentially exploiting nuclearreactors and tsunamis, they
don't, it doesn't get the press,it doesn't get, it's not as
exciting to talk about.
But the destruction is still isstill real and the people's
lives are still affected And,and obviously in the case of
(02:16):
these breweries the livelihoodof a lot of people has been has
been, uh, endangered.
Timothy Sullivan (02:22):
Yeah.
And this is a region of Japanthat you and I have talked about
many times.
It's a very well known sakebrewing region that was the
actual epicenter of thisearthquake.
And we wanted to devote thisepisode to Informing people out
there about what happened theextent of the damage to the sake
industry.
We also want to profile a sakeand one of the particular
(02:47):
breweries that was very damaged,and we want to let people know
how they can help.
John Puma (02:52):
Yeah.
I guess what we should startwith with the particulars this
is the 2024 Noto Peninsulaearthquake and it's, as you've
pointed out, it was like NewYear's Day.
So it's freshly minted 2024 atthat.
A quake struck that was 7.
5 on the Richter scale.
That is as you guys may or maynot know, the Richter scale is
(03:12):
actually, again, exponentialscale.
It's not a seven isn't one morethan six.
It's actually Several orders ofmagnitude more than six.
It's a lot.
And struck about sevenkilometers.
That's a 4.
3 miles for our Americanlisteners.
That's most of us north,northwest of Suzu, which is on
(03:33):
the Noto peninsula of IshikawaPrefecture.
Timothy Sullivan (03:37):
Yeah.
And there were a few towns inparticular that were affected by
this.
Wajima, Suzu, and Anamizu thosethree towns were affected by,
the earthquake in particular.
Wajima is really well known forlacquerware and it's really well
known for sake breweries and thesake we're going to taste today
is actually one from Wajima.
(03:57):
So they're really in thecrosshairs of this horrible
earthquake.
There have been about 238fatalities reported so far in
Ishikawa and over 1300 peoplewere injured so far.
And it is every few years, itseems like there's an earthquake
that reaches up to thismagnitude in Japan.
(04:19):
They're incredibly well preparedto deal with this, but even the
best countermeasures stillresult in fatalities and
destruction of buildings everyfew years.
So it's a fact of reality inJapan.
John Puma (04:34):
Yeah.
I think this is the worst quakesince the 2016 earthquake over
in Kumamoto That was insane.
I was actually in Japan duringthat.
I was in Tokyo, so quite faraway, but it was all over the
news and a lot of people were,very stunned and shocked seeing
it all happening in real time.
It was very crazy.
Timothy Sullivan (04:50):
And I looked up online some information
about, for the sake industry inparticular, for the regions
surrounding Ishikawa, how many.
Breweries were affected out ofthe total number of breweries.
So why don't we go through someof those regions and we can talk
about what the damage level isfor those particular regions.
(05:13):
This is information that I gotfrom the Taste Translation
website, which is a project ofArlene Lyons in Switzerland, and
she does a great job translatingJapanese sake news into English
for the rest of us.
So we're always so grateful toArlene for her support.
So this information comes fromher website.
And why don't we start withground zero?
(05:34):
Why don't we start withIshikawa?
John Puma (05:36):
Yeah.
Um, this language is purelyabout the breweries, right?
Timothy Sullivan (05:40):
Yeah.
This is about the
John Puma (05:41):
So it looks out of the 33 Breweries over in
Ishikawa, 24 of them reporteddamage.
That's a lot.
And eight cases of destruction.
Which they're showing us likebreweries or offices, homes,
stores, et cetera.
Two cases of severe damage, nohuman casualties at the
breweries, which is is a mercy.
(06:02):
The 10 sake breweries that areactually on the peninsula will
not be able to produce ordistribute sake for a while.
They need to rebuild quite a bitconsiderably.
To note about all this though,is that one really, like the
full assessment of knowing howbad the damage is, is actually
hindered because there's,evacuations there's, there's the
roads that are destroyed thatpeople can't get to, places to
(06:25):
find out how bad they are, youknow, this is something that
even, even a month out is gonnastart, we're still gonna be
hearing things and.
Peeling back the onion, so tospeak.
Timothy Sullivan (06:35):
Yeah.
And if you remember my storyabout going to the Noto
Peninsula when I visited SogenBrewery, I did hear that Sogen
was it actually had landslidedamage.
So it wasn't destroyed by theearthquake itself, but there was
landslides that affected severalof the brewery buildings.
(06:56):
So they're also out ofcommission for this brewing year
for sure.
Getting there, it's a narrowpeninsula that juts out into the
Sea of Japan.
And if several roads aredisrupted or broken apart,
getting aid further into thepeninsula is very difficult.
So I think the full extent ofthe damage is just now slowly
(07:18):
being reported and beinguncovered even several weeks
later.
Um, yeah, so that's a quickoverview of what happened in
Ishikawa.
John Puma (07:27):
But it doesn't stop there.
There's also breweries in Toyamathat were damaged breweries in
Fukui.
And and in Niigata, Niigata hasa lot of breweries, Tim, if I'm
not mistaken, something likealmost 90, if I'm not, if I'm
remembering right, 29 suffereddamage.
So people forget that Niigata'sright over there also.
(07:49):
And it's just it's a lot.
It's a lot to to take in, forthis is an industry that has
been going through some hardtimes and that is near and dear
to all of our hearts herelistening.
And and here we are with with alot of setbacks for a lot of
breweries.
Timothy Sullivan (08:04):
Yeah.
And there's also one report fromNagano Prefecture of one brewery
out of the 80 has reporteddamage, but the one saving grace
in all of this is that none ofthe sake breweries reported any
loss of life from thedestruction.
(08:24):
So that is, is a blessing forsure.
but yeah.
But.
With even the breweries thattheir building survived
relatively intact or didn'tcollapse completely in the
Ishikawa region, their existingstore of bottles was often
destroyed, and then theirability to finish any type of
(08:46):
brewing this year is notpossible.
So, We really have our thoughtswith all the brewing.
community, all the industrypeople in Ishikawa and the
surrounding prefectures thatwere affected.
John Puma (09:01):
So we're gonna take a moment now and we're gonna
Introduce the sake we're gonnabe sipping today and Tim as you
mentioned earlier.
This is from the region and Youwant to go ahead and introduce
this one?
Mm
Timothy Sullivan (09:16):
Yeah.
We wanted to find a sake totaste on the show today to honor
one of the breweries that isundergoing a big struggle.
They're not going to be able tobrew this year and maybe even
not next year as they worktowards rebuilding.
But there are a number ofbreweries that have products on
the market now in The states,and we wanted to pick one and
(09:39):
focus on one brewery inparticular as a representative
for the breweries that are allstruggling with producing this
year.
And the brewery we came up withwas Hakuto Shuzo.
They are located in Wajima,Ishikawa, and their brand is
(10:00):
Hakuto, which is translated asdeep faith.
Which is something we all needright now to deal with this
horrible situation with theearthquake aftermath.
This brewery was founded in1722.
And it is a family run business.
The current owners are husbandand wife team, Kiichi and Akiko
(10:23):
Hakuto.
They actually met at the TokyoUniversity of Agriculture, where
they were both studyingfermentation science.
And Kiichi is the ninthgeneration of his family to
carry on the tradition ofbrewing sake.
So this is a family run businessmany, many generations.
(10:43):
And This couple was well knownfor their dedication to
promoting sake, and they arerelatively young and vibrant,
and I think they will be up tothe challenge to rebuilding.
It's a long road ahead, and ofcourse we want to send them our
best wishes and any support wecan but let's look at the sake
(11:04):
that they've been exporting.
The exporter is Jo to sake andlet's take a look at the stats
for the sake we're gonna tastetoday.
John Puma (11:15):
thing, Tim.
We've got Hakuto's TokubetsuJunmai as you mentioned, the
Hakuto name Deep Faith is theEnglish translation they're
using the rice variety on thissake is both Yamadanishiki
Gohyakumangoku the rice has beenpolished down to 55% of its
original size.
The yeast that's in effect todayis number 14, which is
(11:38):
apparently a Kanazawa yeastassociation.
Number 14, I should specify thesake meter value from that
measure.
Dry too sweet is plus two.
The acidity is 1.
6 and the alcohol percentage is15 even
Timothy Sullivan (11:53):
So this is their Tokubestu Junmai, and it's
a well-known sake, and Jo to,has been distributing this.
They're a well-known distributorfrom small family Run.
breweries, and they put amessage up on Instagram that
(12:16):
this was a few days after theearthquake, and they were just
acknowledging that Hakuto, andanother brand that Hakuto makes
is called Shiragiku.
So the Instagram handle for thisbrewery is hakuto underscore
Shiragiku, and the Brewers haveactually posted a few short
(12:40):
videos to their Instagramshowing the damage, showing them
recovering the sign that was,had their brand name on it from
the front of their building.
And Joto was happy to reportthat the family and staff are
all safe and physically well.
But the brewery building itselfsuffered substantial damage and
(13:04):
uncertain water and powersupply, which of course makes it
impossible to get back tobrewing.
You know, one Thing that I'veknown from a lot of the
distributors is that they havedeep personal relationships with
the families that make the sakethat they sell.
Uh, This isn't just acontractual relationship where
(13:25):
they ship back and forth andthey don't know each other.
They visit each other often.
They work together to promotetheir sake.
And I know the people at Jotoare close, personally close to
the Hakuto family.
It is just great to see them,their concern for them and their
support for them.
And I know that for any of thebreweries that they distribute
(13:47):
that they'll be there to dowhatever they can to help them
get back on their feet.
John Puma (13:52):
Oh, yes.
Yes.
I hope so.
so additionally, there is amessage here from Hakuto as
well, from the brewerythemselves., according to their
messaging, it looks like the,their store, their office the
residential area.
So there's housing around thesearound these brewers very often.
Timothy Sullivan (14:09):
Yeah.
Their house is actually, theirhouse is actually attached
John Puma (14:11):
Their house is that, no, I actually live there, wow.
Their warehouse for stores,their commercial refrigeration
buildings where they store sakeas well.
They have all Collapsed.
The walls are fully fullydamaged.
They're saying major damage tothe equipment, major damage to
the tanks, the washing machines,the pouring machines,
everything, everything that theyuse to make sake on a day to day
(14:31):
basis has been damaged.
They didn't have water at thetime of this post, they have a a
partial power outage and no wordon when it's going to be
restored keep in mind everybodythat in situations like this
with an earthquake, you alsohave a danger of aftershocks, so
you can't always You know theemergency services can't always
jump right in and bring Servicesfully back online because it
could cause more damage duringaftershocks Brewing for this
(14:55):
year has been cancelled they endit by saying kind of rest
assured that they will be okaylittle by little they're gonna
move forward and and they'regonna and they're gonna be safe.
And that's, the gist of whatthey had posted.
And it's really, it gives you anidea of what's going on over
there.
It's just that it, that this isan incredible amount of damage
and and that, the livelihoodthat these people depend on
(15:16):
every year is gone for the yearsis that no, they will not sell
any sake.
Timothy Sullivan (15:20):
Yeah.
John Puma (15:21):
And that's terrifying.
If that's, if that's what you doto to survive, to make money and
you have a family and andemployees that depend on you and
it's hard.
Timothy Sullivan (15:30):
Yeah.
And John, I think it's just alittle bit overwhelming if you
stop and think about Thisparticular case multiplied not
only across the sake industry,but across all industries.
If you run a dog kennel or adentist's office or whatever in
this region, your industrieshave been affected too.
So it's literally overwhelmingto think about all these
(15:52):
different industries that areaffected.
But one thing that.
Helps me to take action and getfocus is to look at the industry
that, directly affects somethingwe care about so deeply and try
to help in any way we can thereversus just feeling overwhelmed
and becoming incapacitated.
John Puma (16:12):
Tim, that's a really great way to put it.
I've been like, I've been liketrying to digest this and
thinking about how we'representing this and obviously
our focus is on is on thisindustry, as you pointed out,
this is something that'shappening across everything over
there.
But it just happens that we arefocused on sake cause that's
what we do.
So that is that's why our focusis there.
(16:33):
So with that said we're going tohave a sip of the, of that
Hakuto Tokubetsu Junmai that wespoke about like we normally do.
Cause you know, this is stillsake revolution
Timothy Sullivan (16:45):
Yeah.
And we want to honor the sakethat they've made.
We won't be able to get it.
We won't be able to get it forone or maybe two years.
So while it's still availablehere, we want to make sure that
we're supporting them.
And so we were able to get ourhands on Hakuto Tokubetsu
Junmai.
So let's get this in the glassand we can give it a taste and
(17:06):
give it a description.
John Puma (17:08):
It sounds great.
All right.
So we've got that in the glassand it is.
Clear and just a touch off offwhite, I want to say.
And I don't know about you, butI see tiny bits of particulate,
or bubbles, I'm not sure, inmine.
(17:30):
What are you seeing?
Timothy Sullivan (17:31):
Hmm.
I see like a hint of yellowcolor.
This is a Tokubetsu Junmai andyeah this, um, looks
interesting.
So let's bring it to the noseand give it a smell.
John Puma (17:41):
Mm.
So that's, what is that almostalmost like licorice, almost, on
the nose?
Timothy Sullivan (17:46):
Bit like baking spices.
And the, there's a aroma note onthe bottle here.
It says smells like maple syrupa little bit.
But
John Puma (18:00):
I could see where they're coming from, but I'm
going to agree to disagree onthat a little bit.
Timothy Sullivan (18:03):
Yeah there's I like the kind of the idea of
baking spices.
If you think about cinnamon orallspice, there's a warming, if
you smell an apple pie orsomething like that, you get
that baking spice aroma.
There's a little bit of that.
John Puma (18:18):
Let's have a sip then.
Timothy Sullivan (18:19):
Yeah.
John Puma (18:20):
Ooh, that's nice.
Timothy Sullivan (18:25):
There's a real depth here.
There's a little bit of.
Creaminess, a little bit ofrice, and overall dry but soft.
yeah, and still warming.
John Puma (18:40):
you immediately pointed out that there's a lot
of depth and the Englishtranslation for the name is deep
faith.
Timothy Sullivan (18:46):
Yeah,
John Puma (18:47):
know what they're doing.
Timothy Sullivan (18:49):
they sure do.
John Puma (18:51):
Yeah, this is nice.
And it is, yeah, there is that.
My favorite thing about tastingis, is the creaminess that you
pointed out.
That's that the way it it feelsin the mouth and on the palate
is is lovely.
Timothy Sullivan (19:03):
It's definitely Junmai, it has that,
a little bit of like a ricepudding character to it, but it
has that warming sensationagain, not that it tastes like
overtly like cinnamon, butthere's just that baked apple
pie, warm, cozy feeling to it.
John Puma (19:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's nice.
That's a good way to put it.
I like that.
It does take cozy.
It is cozy.
It's comforting.
Also, it's very I think thatthis would actually be really
This would have a nice timebeing, I don't know about warmed
up a little bit, but perhaps,but definitely room temperature.
I want to have this a littlebit.
(19:42):
It's a touch warmer.
Timothy Sullivan (19:45):
I vote for warm.
Why
John Puma (19:47):
You fall for it, you want to go all in, all I'm very
I'm very trepidatious about mysake warming.
But I am warming up to theconcept of room temperature as a
normal thing to do at home.
So
Timothy Sullivan (20:00):
Thanks for bringing a dad joke to this
serious episode, John.
John Puma (20:05):
you haven't done a pun in a while.
So I had to do something.
I had to bring it.
Timothy Sullivan (20:11):
This is a delicious sake.
It's something that I would wantto drink, especially in the
wintertime.
I think warmed up would begreat, as I just said, and I'd
also love to have this with warmdishes like a stew, like if I
had a winter stew, chicken stew,and this would, I think, would
(20:32):
be off the charts delicious.
It does have when you say it'sWarm and creamy and Junmai.
I also want to emphasize thatthis is also like.
uses a very light touch.
So it's not heavy at all.
It's very light and almost alittle bit airy, but it has that
(20:52):
warming sensation, a little bitof that creamy texture, and it
really brings the ricecharacteristic forward.
So if you're a lover of riceforward Sakes, but like things a
little on the lighter side, nottoo heavy or overbearing.
I think this would be right upyour alley.
John Puma (21:10):
Yeah, this is definitely not in the realm of
crazy style
Timothy Sullivan (21:14):
No.
John Puma (21:15):
No, it is, it is it what you point out.
It's it tastes very Junmai
Timothy Sullivan (21:21):
Yeah.
John Puma (21:22):
with a hundred percent there.
Timothy Sullivan (21:24):
Do you have any thoughts on what you might
pair with the sake like this?
John Puma (21:27):
I can't get the stew idea in my head now Uh, however
I think that I did have somesome not spicy at all, but more
of a earthy like a chicken chilirecently.
And that's giving me, I'mgetting some thoughts about
that.
I think that would go prettywell here.
And now I'm hungry.
You see how this goes?
Absolutely.
Timothy Sullivan (21:51):
you can taste in this sake that for me, it
feels like something that'shandcrafted and it has the
nuance and the attention todetail that you can tell that
the brewers, labored over thisand made something special.
So our thoughts and.
Really good wishes go out to theHakuto family and we're so happy
(22:16):
to be able to taste their sakeand we will have another episode
when their next batch from theirrebuilt brewery comes back on
the market.
And um,
John Puma (22:29):
Now,
Timothy Sullivan (22:29):
yeah,
John Puma (22:31):
I bet if you are listening and hearing about all
this, you might be wonderingwhat you can do to help and
believe it or not, there arethings you can do.
Timothy Sullivan (22:40):
yes, we mentioned before, it can be
overwhelming if you think aboutdamage across the entire
prefecture and how this storyhas fallen out of the news.
But if you've listened to thisif you're watching this episode
and you're looking for a way tosupport Ishikawa, support these
brewers, So our, Suggestion hereis to visit our website,
(23:00):
sakerevolution.
com.
Look at the show notes for thisepisode, and we'll list several
options for sending support toJapan.
John Puma (23:10):
yes we often say you should check the show notes, but
this one, this is really wherethe meat is on this one.
Definitely go there and checkthe show notes and find out what
you can do to help.
Timothy Sullivan (23:19):
John, this has been a little bit more of a
serious episode for us, not ourusual laugh fest, but we just
knew we had to talk about thesituation for the sake industry
in Ishikawa and the surroundingprefectures.
We hope that any listener who'sinterested in helping will visit
(23:41):
our show notes and look at thedifferent options for supporting
the brewers.
Anything that you can contributewill.
Be greatly appreciated.
And as we get more information,we will continue to report and
let you know how the recoveryefforts are going.
I'm sure we'll get updates inthe future down the line and
(24:02):
bring you whatever good news wecan John, it was so wonderful to
connect with you again.
Always so nice to record withyou.
And I really enjoyed tastingthis Hakuto together.
It was very special to enjoythis sake together while we're
thinking about And sending ourbest wishes to all the brewers
in Ishikawa.
(24:22):
I want to thank our listeners,of course, for tuning in thank
you in advance for all thesupport that you give to
Ishikawa, and I want to thankour patrons as well, as always,
for your support of our show.
Without your support, wecouldn't bring you Sake
Revolution.
So much appreciated.
Kanpai!
John Puma (24:38):
And one last time, as Tim mentioned, if you go over to
the show notes at our website,sakerevolution.
com you'll find informationabout various fundraising
efforts to help support thebreweries in the Noto Peninsula.
On that note please raise aglass, and remember to keep
drinking sake, and kanpai.
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Sake Revolution.
This podcast, and I'm one ofyour hosts.
My name is John Puma.
I'm from the Sake Notes.
I'm also the guy who, managesthe internet's sake discord as
well as Reddit's r slash sakecommunity.
Timothy Sullivan (00:37):
And I'm your host, Timothy Sullivan.
I'm a sake samurai.
I'm a sake educator, as well asthe founder of the Urban Sake
website.
And every week, John and I willbe here tasting and chatting
about all things sake and doingour best to make it fun and easy
to understand.
John Puma (00:52):
Hello, Tim.
How are you today?
I'm good.
I'm good.
Timothy Sullivan (00:54):
Hello, John.
We always try to make thingsfun, don't we?
But our topic for this week isnot especially fun.
John Puma (01:01):
It's not fun unfortunately.
But I do think that sometimesyou do need to take a step back
and and I think we need to, wehave a voice and we have people
who tune into our show everyweek.
in times of concern need to useyour voice to draw attention to
to bad things that happen andand give people the power to
(01:23):
help make them better
Timothy Sullivan (01:24):
Yeah.
today, we're going to be talkingabout the earthquake that
happened in Japan on New Year'sday.
And that was all over the newson New Year's day.
But one thing that concerns meis that it's really fallen off
the radar of, the States.
And we just wanted to do anepisode that was focused on the
(01:45):
severe impact of this earthquakeon the sake brewing industry,
especially in Ishikawa.
And it's just not getting enoughcoverage in my book.
John Puma (01:56):
Now I think that for a lot of people.
After the 2011 earthquake it'sanything that's not with
potentially exploiting nuclearreactors and tsunamis, they
don't, it doesn't get the press,it doesn't get, it's not as
exciting to talk about.
But the destruction is still isstill real and the people's
lives are still affected And,and obviously in the case of
(02:16):
these breweries the livelihoodof a lot of people has been has
been, uh, endangered.
Timothy Sullivan (02:22):
Yeah.
And this is a region of Japanthat you and I have talked about
many times.
It's a very well known sakebrewing region that was the
actual epicenter of thisearthquake.
And we wanted to devote thisepisode to Informing people out
there about what happened theextent of the damage to the sake
industry.
We also want to profile a sakeand one of the particular
(02:47):
breweries that was very damaged,and we want to let people know
how they can help.
John Puma (02:52):
Yeah.
I guess what we should startwith with the particulars this
is the 2024 Noto Peninsulaearthquake and it's, as you've
pointed out, it was like NewYear's Day.
So it's freshly minted 2024 atthat.
A quake struck that was 7.
5 on the Richter scale.
That is as you guys may or maynot know, the Richter scale is
(03:12):
actually, again, exponentialscale.
It's not a seven isn't one morethan six.
It's actually Several orders ofmagnitude more than six.
It's a lot.
And struck about sevenkilometers.
That's a 4.
3 miles for our Americanlisteners.
That's most of us north,northwest of Suzu, which is on
(03:33):
the Noto peninsula of IshikawaPrefecture.
Timothy Sullivan (03:37):
Yeah.
And there were a few towns inparticular that were affected by
this.
Wajima, Suzu, and Anamizu thosethree towns were affected by,
the earthquake in particular.
Wajima is really well known forlacquerware and it's really well
known for sake breweries and thesake we're going to taste today
is actually one from Wajima.
(03:57):
So they're really in thecrosshairs of this horrible
earthquake.
There have been about 238fatalities reported so far in
Ishikawa and over 1300 peoplewere injured so far.
And it is every few years, itseems like there's an earthquake
that reaches up to thismagnitude in Japan.
(04:19):
They're incredibly well preparedto deal with this, but even the
best countermeasures stillresult in fatalities and
destruction of buildings everyfew years.
So it's a fact of reality inJapan.
John Puma (04:34):
Yeah.
I think this is the worst quakesince the 2016 earthquake over
in Kumamoto That was insane.
I was actually in Japan duringthat.
I was in Tokyo, so quite faraway, but it was all over the
news and a lot of people were,very stunned and shocked seeing
it all happening in real time.
It was very crazy.
Timothy Sullivan (04:50):
And I looked up online some information
about, for the sake industry inparticular, for the regions
surrounding Ishikawa, how many.
Breweries were affected out ofthe total number of breweries.
So why don't we go through someof those regions and we can talk
about what the damage level isfor those particular regions.
(05:13):
This is information that I gotfrom the Taste Translation
website, which is a project ofArlene Lyons in Switzerland, and
she does a great job translatingJapanese sake news into English
for the rest of us.
So we're always so grateful toArlene for her support.
So this information comes fromher website.
And why don't we start withground zero?
(05:34):
Why don't we start withIshikawa?
John Puma (05:36):
Yeah.
Um, this language is purelyabout the breweries, right?
Timothy Sullivan (05:40):
Yeah.
This is about the
John Puma (05:41):
So it looks out of the 33 Breweries over in
Ishikawa, 24 of them reporteddamage.
That's a lot.
And eight cases of destruction.
Which they're showing us likebreweries or offices, homes,
stores, et cetera.
Two cases of severe damage, nohuman casualties at the
breweries, which is is a mercy.
(06:02):
The 10 sake breweries that areactually on the peninsula will
not be able to produce ordistribute sake for a while.
They need to rebuild quite a bitconsiderably.
To note about all this though,is that one really, like the
full assessment of knowing howbad the damage is, is actually
hindered because there's,evacuations there's, there's the
roads that are destroyed thatpeople can't get to, places to
(06:25):
find out how bad they are, youknow, this is something that
even, even a month out is gonnastart, we're still gonna be
hearing things and.
Peeling back the onion, so tospeak.
Timothy Sullivan (06:35):
Yeah.
And if you remember my storyabout going to the Noto
Peninsula when I visited SogenBrewery, I did hear that Sogen
was it actually had landslidedamage.
So it wasn't destroyed by theearthquake itself, but there was
landslides that affected severalof the brewery buildings.
(06:56):
So they're also out ofcommission for this brewing year
for sure.
Getting there, it's a narrowpeninsula that juts out into the
Sea of Japan.
And if several roads aredisrupted or broken apart,
getting aid further into thepeninsula is very difficult.
So I think the full extent ofthe damage is just now slowly
(07:18):
being reported and beinguncovered even several weeks
later.
Um, yeah, so that's a quickoverview of what happened in
Ishikawa.
John Puma (07:27):
But it doesn't stop there.
There's also breweries in Toyamathat were damaged breweries in
Fukui.
And and in Niigata, Niigata hasa lot of breweries, Tim, if I'm
not mistaken, something likealmost 90, if I'm not, if I'm
remembering right, 29 suffereddamage.
So people forget that Niigata'sright over there also.
(07:49):
And it's just it's a lot.
It's a lot to to take in, forthis is an industry that has
been going through some hardtimes and that is near and dear
to all of our hearts herelistening.
And and here we are with with alot of setbacks for a lot of
breweries.
Timothy Sullivan (08:04):
Yeah.
And there's also one report fromNagano Prefecture of one brewery
out of the 80 has reporteddamage, but the one saving grace
in all of this is that none ofthe sake breweries reported any
loss of life from thedestruction.
(08:24):
So that is, is a blessing forsure.
but yeah.
But.
With even the breweries thattheir building survived
relatively intact or didn'tcollapse completely in the
Ishikawa region, their existingstore of bottles was often
destroyed, and then theirability to finish any type of
(08:46):
brewing this year is notpossible.
So, We really have our thoughtswith all the brewing.
community, all the industrypeople in Ishikawa and the
surrounding prefectures thatwere affected.
John Puma (09:01):
So we're gonna take a moment now and we're gonna
Introduce the sake we're gonnabe sipping today and Tim as you
mentioned earlier.
This is from the region and Youwant to go ahead and introduce
this one?
Mm
Timothy Sullivan (09:16):
Yeah.
We wanted to find a sake totaste on the show today to honor
one of the breweries that isundergoing a big struggle.
They're not going to be able tobrew this year and maybe even
not next year as they worktowards rebuilding.
But there are a number ofbreweries that have products on
the market now in The states,and we wanted to pick one and
(09:39):
focus on one brewery inparticular as a representative
for the breweries that are allstruggling with producing this
year.
And the brewery we came up withwas Hakuto Shuzo.
They are located in Wajima,Ishikawa, and their brand is
(10:00):
Hakuto, which is translated asdeep faith.
Which is something we all needright now to deal with this
horrible situation with theearthquake aftermath.
This brewery was founded in1722.
And it is a family run business.
The current owners are husbandand wife team, Kiichi and Akiko
(10:23):
Hakuto.
They actually met at the TokyoUniversity of Agriculture, where
they were both studyingfermentation science.
And Kiichi is the ninthgeneration of his family to
carry on the tradition ofbrewing sake.
So this is a family run businessmany, many generations.
(10:43):
And This couple was well knownfor their dedication to
promoting sake, and they arerelatively young and vibrant,
and I think they will be up tothe challenge to rebuilding.
It's a long road ahead, and ofcourse we want to send them our
best wishes and any support wecan but let's look at the sake
(11:04):
that they've been exporting.
The exporter is Jo to sake andlet's take a look at the stats
for the sake we're gonna tastetoday.
John Puma (11:15):
thing, Tim.
We've got Hakuto's TokubetsuJunmai as you mentioned, the
Hakuto name Deep Faith is theEnglish translation they're
using the rice variety on thissake is both Yamadanishiki
Gohyakumangoku the rice has beenpolished down to 55% of its
original size.
The yeast that's in effect todayis number 14, which is
(11:38):
apparently a Kanazawa yeastassociation.
Number 14, I should specify thesake meter value from that
measure.
Dry too sweet is plus two.
The acidity is 1.
6 and the alcohol percentage is15 even
Timothy Sullivan (11:53):
So this is their Tokubestu Junmai, and it's
a well-known sake, and Jo to,has been distributing this.
They're a well-known distributorfrom small family Run.
breweries, and they put amessage up on Instagram that
(12:16):
this was a few days after theearthquake, and they were just
acknowledging that Hakuto, andanother brand that Hakuto makes
is called Shiragiku.
So the Instagram handle for thisbrewery is hakuto underscore
Shiragiku, and the Brewers haveactually posted a few short
(12:40):
videos to their Instagramshowing the damage, showing them
recovering the sign that was,had their brand name on it from
the front of their building.
And Joto was happy to reportthat the family and staff are
all safe and physically well.
But the brewery building itselfsuffered substantial damage and
(13:04):
uncertain water and powersupply, which of course makes it
impossible to get back tobrewing.
You know, one Thing that I'veknown from a lot of the
distributors is that they havedeep personal relationships with
the families that make the sakethat they sell.
Uh, This isn't just acontractual relationship where
(13:25):
they ship back and forth andthey don't know each other.
They visit each other often.
They work together to promotetheir sake.
And I know the people at Jotoare close, personally close to
the Hakuto family.
It is just great to see them,their concern for them and their
support for them.
And I know that for any of thebreweries that they distribute
(13:47):
that they'll be there to dowhatever they can to help them
get back on their feet.
John Puma (13:52):
Oh, yes.
Yes.
I hope so.
so additionally, there is amessage here from Hakuto as
well, from the brewerythemselves., according to their
messaging, it looks like the,their store, their office the
residential area.
So there's housing around thesearound these brewers very often.
Timothy Sullivan (14:09):
Yeah.
Their house is actually, theirhouse is actually attached
John Puma (14:11):
Their house is that, no, I actually live there, wow.
Their warehouse for stores,their commercial refrigeration
buildings where they store sakeas well.
They have all Collapsed.
The walls are fully fullydamaged.
They're saying major damage tothe equipment, major damage to
the tanks, the washing machines,the pouring machines,
everything, everything that theyuse to make sake on a day to day
(14:31):
basis has been damaged.
They didn't have water at thetime of this post, they have a a
partial power outage and no wordon when it's going to be
restored keep in mind everybodythat in situations like this
with an earthquake, you alsohave a danger of aftershocks, so
you can't always You know theemergency services can't always
jump right in and bring Servicesfully back online because it
could cause more damage duringaftershocks Brewing for this
(14:55):
year has been cancelled they endit by saying kind of rest
assured that they will be okaylittle by little they're gonna
move forward and and they'regonna and they're gonna be safe.
And that's, the gist of whatthey had posted.
And it's really, it gives you anidea of what's going on over
there.
It's just that it, that this isan incredible amount of damage
and and that, the livelihoodthat these people depend on
(15:16):
every year is gone for the yearsis that no, they will not sell
any sake.
Timothy Sullivan (15:20):
Yeah.
John Puma (15:21):
And that's terrifying.
If that's, if that's what you doto to survive, to make money and
you have a family and andemployees that depend on you and
it's hard.
Timothy Sullivan (15:30):
Yeah.
And John, I think it's just alittle bit overwhelming if you
stop and think about Thisparticular case multiplied not
only across the sake industry,but across all industries.
If you run a dog kennel or adentist's office or whatever in
this region, your industrieshave been affected too.
So it's literally overwhelmingto think about all these
(15:52):
different industries that areaffected.
But one thing that.
Helps me to take action and getfocus is to look at the industry
that, directly affects somethingwe care about so deeply and try
to help in any way we can thereversus just feeling overwhelmed
and becoming incapacitated.
John Puma (16:12):
Tim, that's a really great way to put it.
I've been like, I've been liketrying to digest this and
thinking about how we'representing this and obviously
our focus is on is on thisindustry, as you pointed out,
this is something that'shappening across everything over
there.
But it just happens that we arefocused on sake cause that's
what we do.
So that is that's why our focusis there.
(16:33):
So with that said we're going tohave a sip of the, of that
Hakuto Tokubetsu Junmai that wespoke about like we normally do.
Cause you know, this is stillsake revolution
Timothy Sullivan (16:45):
Yeah.
And we want to honor the sakethat they've made.
We won't be able to get it.
We won't be able to get it forone or maybe two years.
So while it's still availablehere, we want to make sure that
we're supporting them.
And so we were able to get ourhands on Hakuto Tokubetsu
Junmai.
So let's get this in the glassand we can give it a taste and
(17:06):
give it a description.
John Puma (17:08):
It sounds great.
All right.
So we've got that in the glassand it is.
Clear and just a touch off offwhite, I want to say.
And I don't know about you, butI see tiny bits of particulate,
or bubbles, I'm not sure, inmine.
(17:30):
What are you seeing?
Timothy Sullivan (17:31):
Hmm.
I see like a hint of yellowcolor.
This is a Tokubetsu Junmai andyeah this, um, looks
interesting.
So let's bring it to the noseand give it a smell.
John Puma (17:41):
Mm.
So that's, what is that almostalmost like licorice, almost, on
the nose?
Timothy Sullivan (17:46):
Bit like baking spices.
And the, there's a aroma note onthe bottle here.
It says smells like maple syrupa little bit.
But
John Puma (18:00):
I could see where they're coming from, but I'm
going to agree to disagree onthat a little bit.
Timothy Sullivan (18:03):
Yeah there's I like the kind of the idea of
baking spices.
If you think about cinnamon orallspice, there's a warming, if
you smell an apple pie orsomething like that, you get
that baking spice aroma.
There's a little bit of that.
John Puma (18:18):
Let's have a sip then.
Timothy Sullivan (18:19):
Yeah.
John Puma (18:20):
Ooh, that's nice.
Timothy Sullivan (18:25):
There's a real depth here.
There's a little bit of.
Creaminess, a little bit ofrice, and overall dry but soft.
yeah, and still warming.
John Puma (18:40):
you immediately pointed out that there's a lot
of depth and the Englishtranslation for the name is deep
faith.
Timothy Sullivan (18:46):
Yeah,
John Puma (18:47):
know what they're doing.
Timothy Sullivan (18:49):
they sure do.
John Puma (18:51):
Yeah, this is nice.
And it is, yeah, there is that.
My favorite thing about tastingis, is the creaminess that you
pointed out.
That's that the way it it feelsin the mouth and on the palate
is is lovely.
Timothy Sullivan (19:03):
It's definitely Junmai, it has that,
a little bit of like a ricepudding character to it, but it
has that warming sensationagain, not that it tastes like
overtly like cinnamon, butthere's just that baked apple
pie, warm, cozy feeling to it.
John Puma (19:22):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's nice.
That's a good way to put it.
I like that.
It does take cozy.
It is cozy.
It's comforting.
Also, it's very I think thatthis would actually be really
This would have a nice timebeing, I don't know about warmed
up a little bit, but perhaps,but definitely room temperature.
I want to have this a littlebit.
(19:42):
It's a touch warmer.
Timothy Sullivan (19:45):
I vote for warm.
Why
John Puma (19:47):
You fall for it, you want to go all in, all I'm very
I'm very trepidatious about mysake warming.
But I am warming up to theconcept of room temperature as a
normal thing to do at home.
So
Timothy Sullivan (20:00):
Thanks for bringing a dad joke to this
serious episode, John.
John Puma (20:05):
you haven't done a pun in a while.
So I had to do something.
I had to bring it.
Timothy Sullivan (20:11):
This is a delicious sake.
It's something that I would wantto drink, especially in the
wintertime.
I think warmed up would begreat, as I just said, and I'd
also love to have this with warmdishes like a stew, like if I
had a winter stew, chicken stew,and this would, I think, would
(20:32):
be off the charts delicious.
It does have when you say it'sWarm and creamy and Junmai.
I also want to emphasize thatthis is also like.
uses a very light touch.
So it's not heavy at all.
It's very light and almost alittle bit airy, but it has that
(20:52):
warming sensation, a little bitof that creamy texture, and it
really brings the ricecharacteristic forward.
So if you're a lover of riceforward Sakes, but like things a
little on the lighter side, nottoo heavy or overbearing.
I think this would be right upyour alley.
John Puma (21:10):
Yeah, this is definitely not in the realm of
crazy style
Timothy Sullivan (21:14):
No.
John Puma (21:15):
No, it is, it is it what you point out.
It's it tastes very Junmai
Timothy Sullivan (21:21):
Yeah.
John Puma (21:22):
with a hundred percent there.
Timothy Sullivan (21:24):
Do you have any thoughts on what you might
pair with the sake like this?
John Puma (21:27):
I can't get the stew idea in my head now Uh, however
I think that I did have somesome not spicy at all, but more
of a earthy like a chicken chilirecently.
And that's giving me, I'mgetting some thoughts about
that.
I think that would go prettywell here.
And now I'm hungry.
You see how this goes?
Absolutely.
Timothy Sullivan (21:51):
you can taste in this sake that for me, it
feels like something that'shandcrafted and it has the
nuance and the attention todetail that you can tell that
the brewers, labored over thisand made something special.
So our thoughts and.
Really good wishes go out to theHakuto family and we're so happy
(22:16):
to be able to taste their sakeand we will have another episode
when their next batch from theirrebuilt brewery comes back on
the market.
And um,
John Puma (22:29):
Now,
Timothy Sullivan (22:29):
yeah,
John Puma (22:31):
I bet if you are listening and hearing about all
this, you might be wonderingwhat you can do to help and
believe it or not, there arethings you can do.
Timothy Sullivan (22:40):
yes, we mentioned before, it can be
overwhelming if you think aboutdamage across the entire
prefecture and how this storyhas fallen out of the news.
But if you've listened to thisif you're watching this episode
and you're looking for a way tosupport Ishikawa, support these
brewers, So our, Suggestion hereis to visit our website,
(23:00):
sakerevolution.
com.
Look at the show notes for thisepisode, and we'll list several
options for sending support toJapan.
John Puma (23:10):
yes we often say you should check the show notes, but
this one, this is really wherethe meat is on this one.
Definitely go there and checkthe show notes and find out what
you can do to help.
Timothy Sullivan (23:19):
John, this has been a little bit more of a
serious episode for us, not ourusual laugh fest, but we just
knew we had to talk about thesituation for the sake industry
in Ishikawa and the surroundingprefectures.
We hope that any listener who'sinterested in helping will visit
(23:41):
our show notes and look at thedifferent options for supporting
the brewers.
Anything that you can contributewill.
Be greatly appreciated.
And as we get more information,we will continue to report and
let you know how the recoveryefforts are going.
I'm sure we'll get updates inthe future down the line and
(24:02):
bring you whatever good news wecan John, it was so wonderful to
connect with you again.
Always so nice to record withyou.
And I really enjoyed tastingthis Hakuto together.
It was very special to enjoythis sake together while we're
thinking about And sending ourbest wishes to all the brewers
in Ishikawa.
(24:22):
I want to thank our listeners,of course, for tuning in thank
you in advance for all thesupport that you give to
Ishikawa, and I want to thankour patrons as well, as always,
for your support of our show.
Without your support, wecouldn't bring you Sake
Revolution.
So much appreciated.
Kanpai!
John Puma (24:38):
And one last time, as Tim mentioned, if you go over to
the show notes at our website,sakerevolution.
com you'll find informationabout various fundraising
efforts to help support thebreweries in the Noto Peninsula.
On that note please raise aglass, and remember to keep
drinking sake, and kanpai.
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