Esther and I aren't huge sake fans, so unlike craft beer we don't specifically seek out awesome sake bars or sake breweries whenever we travel like we do with beers unless they're on the way or unique in some regard. But when we heard from Ayuchi Momose - the owner of Sake Bar GINN in Hong Kong and an appointed sake "samurai" - about a small artisanal sake brewery in Vancouver that's taking the city and the rest of Canada by storm, we knew we had to drop by and visit.
Vancouver-based Artisan Sake Maker was founded in 2007 as a unique commercial sake producer making award winning, hand-made, small batch and fresh sake, and was the first-ever sake brewer in the whole of North America. Founder Masa Shiroki originally owned a sake import and distribution company but decided to turn his hand to making sake instead because of the difficulties of importing fresh sake into Canada.
Even better, the tiny outfit was located on Granville Island, just a few streets down from Granville Island Brewing Company which we were visiting as part of our epic Vancouver beer tour. But being on Granville Island - really a tiny peninsula in False Creek just south of Vancouver's downtown area - has its advantages for the sake pioneer, as it turns out. It's a big tourist attraction that also attracts the locals to its large public market, performing arts theatres and independent craft shops.
Today Artisan Sake Maker creates its own OSAKE brand of sake that runs the gamut of sake styles, ranging from (above from left) a junmai nama that's quite crisp and dry with light fruity notes, a richer and creamier junmai nama genshu that's loaded with tropical fruit flavours, as well as a junmai nama nigori that's an unfiltered sake with a rounder, funkier taste, among others.
While sakes in Japan are typically brewed once a year around winter time, Artisan Sake maker makes theirs in small batches several times a year. For some of its sakes - the Fraser Valley range - it also uses rice grown in Fraser Valley in British Columbia instead of imported Japanese rice varietals normally used for making sake. Its research in this regard has not been vain - Artisan Sake Maker's OSAKE sake has today won awards for its sake (including, curiously enough, in wine competitions!).
It's truly impressive that master sake brewer Shiroki-san turns out such commercially viable products from such a tiny, tiny space (the photo above shows you most of his working area). But he takes obvious pride in his work - the pioneer was toiling away behind with an assistant preparing rice lees for fermentation when we visited, although he was gracious enough to come out and say hi to us.
Artisan Sake Maker offers tasting portions of its sake on its premises. Local cheese is also available for pairing. If you're a fan of sake and will be visiting Vancouver sometime soon, this should definitely be on your itinerary.
You can find Artisan Sake Maker at 1339 Railspur Alley, Granville Island, Vancouver.
