American craft sake is booming—and now it has set its sights on Japan

From sturdy denim to comfort shops stocked with each conceivable important, Japan has a knack for adopting American imports, perfecting them and making them their very own. Now, Americans are attempting to show the tables by taking over that almost all Japanese of alcoholic drinks: sake.

In March 2025, New York City’s Brooklyn Kura turned the primary American craft sake brewery to export to Japan. Bottles at the moment are obtainable at bars, eating places and retailers throughout the archipelago, the results of a partnership with Japanese sake model Hakkaisan. “The move makes perfect sense,” says Timothy Sullivan, director of training at Brooklyn Kura’s Sake Studies Center. Japan is the biggest sake market, so the shoppers are there. But he additionally envisions this as a step in the direction of revitalising Japan’s shrinking sake scene, exhibiting Japanese shoppers how passionate the world is about their drink.

After reaching its peak within the early Nineteen Seventies, sake consumption in Japan — the place the fermented rice beverage is seen by some youthful drinkers as a stuffy order — has frequently fallen. But the decline of native curiosity has been offset by rising international demand, notably from the US, the most important marketplace for exports from Japan. Over the previous decade, a increase has introduced the variety of craft breweries within the nation to greater than 20, with two in Brooklyn alone.

“We want to bring some cool back to sake,” says Timothy. Brooklyn Kura hopes that introducing new takes on the drink — comparable to infusing its Occidental sake with beer hops to lend it an IPA-like aroma — will entice youthful generations in Japan. “The branding’s great, Brooklyn’s cool, but it’s not just optics,” he says. “When people taste it, they’ll be surprised at how good it is.” brooklynkura.com

Flavour forecast

SakéOne claimed to be America’s first profitable craft sake brewery when it opened simply outdoors Portland in 1997. “Oregon’s soft water is ideal for making fruity, floral sake,” says grasp brewer Takumi Kuwabara. “Combining Japanese tradition with the pioneering craft spirit of the Pacific Northwest proved to be a winning combination.”

When the brewery launched, America’s sake scene was largely made up of lower-end merchandise. The model’s method, which focuses on premium bottles, was met with scepticism. “In the same way that California proved its wines could compete with those of France, great sake can be produced outside of Japan,” says Takumi. “As more breweries open, people won’t only be more accepting of sake made in America, they’ll seek it out.”

He believes discernible regionality will emerge, too. Jizake (small-batch native sake) has a definite identification, such because the crisp and clear sake of Japan’s Niigata prefecture. “Beverages tend to be rooted in the food culture of each region,” says Takumi. “It’s something we’ll see in the US in the near future.”

Experiencing sake

Visitors to SakéOne can go behind the scenes on brewer-led excursions and pattern merchandise within the tasting room. There’s a programme of occasions, too, from sake-blending courses to chocolate pairings and sip-and-paint evenings.

In New York’s Hudson Valley, two hours north of Manhattan, Dassai Blue brewery has displays on sake-making and hosts Japan-influenced meetups, from wagashi (sweets) workshops to open-air Godzilla screenings. Over in Arkansas, travellers can soak in a pure pool at Hot Springs National Park then order a bottle at Origami Sake, simply 5 minutes away.

And Brooklyn Kura’s Sake Studies Center is the nation’s solely sake faculty hooked up to a working brewery. It affords classes within the artwork of ingesting and pouring sake, from a one-and-a-half-hour tasting session to a day-long serving course. “We can step out of our classroom and walk right through our facility,” says Timothy. “People get a brewery tour, guided tasting and class all in one.”