Sake Education Council

Newsletter for the CSP & ASP Community

Volume 1, Newsletter 1
June-2011
Greetings to all CSPs and ASPs,

We hope you are well.

This newsletter marks the first of the “official” Sake Education Council newsletters. The content will not change much from John Gauntner’s SPC Alumni Newsletter - we will still include “high level” info and industry news from Japan. But we will also be shifting in content a bit more toward our fledgling but growing organization. While I (John) am writing this one, you will surely see contributions from other directors and members in forthcoming issues.

We will also try to be much more regular from now on out. In any organization, communication amongst the members is key to a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, and appropriate growth. And regular newsletters are perhaps the easiest way to achieve all of that. So look for a regular, on-time, useful and readable SEC newsletter on a monthly basis.

And, if nothing else this month, read the notice about the SEC gathering in New York City on August 2, just after the CSP-certification Sake Professional Course.

Warm regards,
John Gauntner

FUTURE COURSES
The plans for a course in Europe this year have been put into limbo for now considering the limitations on what can be imported, and pending the reaction of the local market. Surely anything is possible! But a bit more planning and discussion are needed.

Sake Professional Course Level II and Advanced Sake Professional Certification Testing
The “Level II” course and the subsequent ASP testing is scheduled for the week of February 13, 2012. As you likely know, the requirements are having successfully completed Level I. You do NOT have to have passed the CSP exam to take this course. However, to sit for the ASP exam you will need to take and pass the CSP exam, and an opportunity to do this will be provided to you at the beginning of the course.

Pricing and details are not yet 100% decided, but will likely be about \150,000 (yen), with travel and lodging separate but evening meals included. Feel free to indicate your intention to attend if you are so inclined, but a more official announcement will follow in the late summer.

INDUSTRY NEWS
General State of the Industry
More than three months have passed since the March 11 disasters struck the Tohoku region. Let us look at how the sake industry stands affected by those tragedies.

Of the many kura damaged, obviously some were worse off than others. While the regions that saw the most damaged to kura were Miyagi and Iwate, almost every brewery in Ibaraki, for example, had some damage, although most of it minor. Perhaps ten were either totally destroyed or left unusable and beyond repair. Yet, to my knowledge, none have thrown in the towel. Every single kura has vowed to start brewing again.

As a quick cross-section, Niizawa Shuzo (Hakurakusei, Atago no Matsu) in Miyagi was shaken down by the earthquake, has stated that it is physically impossible to brew again in that facility, and that time is of the essence in finding or making a new facility in which to brew next season. While this message is in Japanese you can see a couple photos of the kura here: http://www.miyagisake.jp/2011Event/Nizawa01.pdf

A few others closer to the ocean are unsure if they can brew this coming season or not. Ichinokura actually managed to come back within a few weeks and pick up where they left off, thanks to the cooperation of everyone in the company. At the other end of the spectrum, Suisen in Iwate, whose brewery was battered by the tsunami on national television, has let all their employees go for now, but has stated they would hire them back when they got going again.


In this photo we can see the Suisen kura building and how the retreating tsunami actually hung a taru on a beam sticking up out of the debris. The caption reads, “We absolutely can rebuild!” Inspirational to say the least.
http://blog-imgs-15.fc2.com/i/z/a/izakayaneta/suisennsyuzou3.jpg

There is much that remains to be answered and seen. Once they rebuild, they do have to sell sake, and a lot of it, and for a long time. Anything is impossible, so let us support all these places - and the industry as a whole - as much as we can.

Other Factors
But just being able to rebuild and brew does not guarantee success or even survival. Sake brewing is tough for almost everyone doing it. Huge financial outlays are necessary every year just to buy rice, and revenues from that do not come for a year or more. And this is assuming the stuff will sell! Remember that, as much as we all love it, sake continues to be on the decline in Japan. Will this series of tragedies possibly help sake sales? And of course, how patient will the lending institutions be in this economy and time of rebuilding?

Who Is Helping
Lots of folks, really. First of all, consumers. Since 3/11, sake consumption for most of Tohoku - including Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima – is actually up. Folks are taking this “drink Tohoku” thing seriously. The question is, will it continue?

The government is helping too. There are indication that major sake tax breaks will be given to producers and retailers that were damaged in the earthquake and tsunami. And, the industry is taking care of their own, through many supporting efforts. While most of these are fund raising, I have also read mention of some brewers being willing to let other brewers that have lost their facilities “borrow” parts of their brewery to at least make some product while they wait for their own kura to be rebuilt. (Nothing concrete on this yet; but note, it did happen in Kobe after the 1995 earthquake there.)

Radiation Concerns and Exports
What about overseas concerns about radiation? What about your concerns?

First off, it is easy to demonstrate that sake is safe - for many reasons, and in many ways.

Fukushima is a wide prefecture and the affected power plant is located on the eastern coast. There are four breweries in the areas that have been directly affected by high radiation. (None of them are exported.) A variety of factors will determine whether or not they can continue, but none of them have anything to do with the sake itself.

The rice used in any sake in a bottle today was harvested last fall, long before this all began. The water comes from deep wells sourced from far-away mountain ranges, and that too was in the tanks and bottles before this all began. Storage is in thick-walled kura buildings or closed-off refrigerators. And beyond the above-mentioned four kura, the others are quite far away, well beyond where there are any radiation concerns.

What of next year? Obviously, no one will use rice from problematic regions, and the water will be safe for the same reasons.

And on top of this, sake from anywhere near the region is being measured to be sure it does not contain any of the detrimental compounds related to high levels of radiation.

This is why we should all feel safe about our sake.

Various governments are reacting in different ways. The EU, Korea, Malaysia and a couple more non-EU European countries are requiring verifying documents to show the following points.
1) The sake was made before 3/11 as per the date on the bottle
2) It is not from Fukushima, Miyagi, Yamagata, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Niigata, Chiba, Tokyo or Kanagawa. A quick glance at the map in your manual or (here) will show you that these places extend pretty far out from Fukushima.
3) If the sake is from one of the above prefectures, documentation proving it has been tested for a handful of detrimental compounds, and found to be within legal limits.

Canada is requesting a statement listing the prefectural sources for all the ingredients (rice, water, koji and yeast), but to my knowledge is not requiring official third-party documentation.

The US is not requiring anything like the above, but they have long measured all incoming containers for radiation, and continue to do so. Some containers from the affected regions have been stopped for a couple-few days, but all have been allowed to pass after that.

***
Let us all continue to do what we can to support Japan and the sake world by continuing to promote sake, and calming if not squashing any uninformed or lacking-in-scientific-grounds information or rumors.


IN THIS ISSUE
FUTURE COURSES
INDUSTRY NEWS
COMPETITION REPORT
EVENTS
Sake Professional Course
 New York City
 July 31 ~ August 2, 2011
"No sake stone remains left unturned."
The next stateside running of the Sake Professional Course will be held at Astor Center in New York City on Sunday, July 31 through Tuesday, August 2, 2011. The course will run basically 9 to 5 all three days, and will conclude with certification testing for the Certified Sake Professional, recognized by the Sake Education Council. Feel free to ask any questions about the course, or make a reservation with an email to info@sake-world.com.
Sake Education Council Gathering, August 2, 2011
New York City
On the evening of Tuesday, August 2, 2011 from 7:00 there will be an informal Sake Education Council gathering at soon-to-be-opened bar The Tippler, co-owned by SEC director Paul Tanguay, located at 425 W. 15th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues. The number is 212-206-0000
The event will be a relatively informal gathering, with perhaps a word or two about the organization and its goals and direction. We hope that anyone remotely near New York City on that day can make it!
We do need a headcount, though! If you plan to attend, please send an email to paultanguay@sakeeducationcouncil.org. If you intend to bring a guest, please indicate that as well.

New Sake Tasting Competition Report
For those that read either my normal newsletter or my blog, you can see a report on the National New Sake Competition there. I can sum it all up in a line here: in a year of adversity that included not only the tragedies but also a hideous rice year, the contest sake was not bad at all.

And here is a bonus bit of info for the graduates: of 895 submissions this year, 65 were junmai-shu. That is about 65 more than they had ten years ago. As you surely recall, contest sake uses the added alcohol to boost the aromas and flavors and impact. But more brewers are trying to get that impact from just a junmai-shu (Suginishiki from Shizuoka is one example, although they did not place), or perhaps have switched to junmai-shu only in their production (still don’t get why they would do that; but an example if Amanoto in Akita, who did in fact get a prize).

QUICK LINKS

Join Our mailing list
News Archive

               
Finally,
If you are no longer involved with sake, God forbid, or for any other reason you prefer to not receive this email, then please let us know. We welcome feedback, ideas and contributions from all of the CSP/ASP community.

Until next month, please keep well, and enjoy your sake.

Sake Education Council
CONTACT DETAILS
Sake Education Council

johngauntner@sakeeducationcouncil.com
www.sakeeducationcouncil.org