In #4, we outlined the reasons why sake made from table rice has failed to gain widespread popularity. It was not down to institutional or technical factors, but rather a gap in the process between procurement and commercialisation.

On the other hand, efforts to overcome this hurdle are emerging from an unexpected direction.

Ever since we started making sake from Koshihikari rice, we’ve been receiving enquiries from farmers.

It wasn’t us who approached them and asked, ‘Would you like to try brewing sake from table rice?’ Rather, once people realised that rice intended for eating could be turned into sake, they began asking us, ‘Could you make sake from our rice too?’ Whilst we were simply testing whether sake could be brewed from Uonuma-grown Koshihikari, it seems the farmers see things from a slightly different perspective.

Details of the consultation

One of them was rice grown on terraced fields.

These are rice paddies that are preserved through the collective efforts of the community, who come together to plant and harvest the rice. Large machinery struggles to access them, and each plot is small. It cannot be described as efficient. Yet there are people who want to preserve them, so they invite others to join them in growing rice together.

The enquiry was about whether it would be possible to make sake from that rice. It wasn’t about selling the rice at a higher price, but rather about wanting to share some sake with the people involved in the terraced rice fields. I was also told that if they had some sake, they might be able to attract a few more people to get involved with the terraced rice fields.

The other was from a farmer who grows rice without using pesticides.

We already have customers here who buy rice from us every year. We’ve been asked whether we could also supply them with sake made from the same rice.

What they had in common

What both consultations had in common was that, even before they began making sake, they already had a specific audience in mind.

Normally, product development proceeds in the opposite order. First, you create the product, and then you consider who to sell it to. You decide on the target market, look for distribution channels, and estimate how many units you can sell.

The order of these two was reversed. The idea is that there are people who grow rice, and people who know about that rice, and the question is whether sake could be placed in between them.

I can picture the drinker’s face even before I see the product.

From ‘What sort of rice?’ to ‘Whose rice?’

Up to this point, the discussion on rice brewing has centred entirely on rice varieties: Yamada Nishiki, Gohyakumangoku or Koshihikari; sake rice or table rice.

Since I started receiving enquiries from farmers, my perspective has changed.

Even within the same Koshihikari variety, there are differences in background depending on whether it was grown in terraced fields or on flat land, whether it was cultivated without the use of pesticides, or whether it has been grown by the same farmer for decades.

Once rice enters the distribution chain, it is categorised by variety, place of origin, grade and weight. This is because a common standard is needed to ensure the stable transport of large quantities of rice. However, information such as who has tended that particular paddy field, why it is cultivated in that particular way, and who buys that rice every year tends to be lost along the way.

If it is turned into sake, there is a chance that it can be brought to the fore once again. It would no longer be ‘Koshihikari sake’, but rather ‘sake made from that person’s rice’.

When it comes to sake, the brewery that produced it is always mentioned. However, there are not many sakes where you can trace the rice right back to the farmer who grew it. When sake production begins with the farmer, that changes.

It’s not about what sort of rice is used to make it, but whose rice is used.

This is the area where my way of thinking has changed the most over the past year.

This isn’t a story about a farmer becoming a wine merchant

Put like that, it might sound as though a farmer is launching a sake brand. However, based on the consultations I’ve had, it’s slightly different.

Not everyone wants to set up their own sake company, obtain a licence and sell their products nationwide. In fact, there are far more people who simply want to see their own rice turned into sake. And, if possible, they want to deliver that sake to people who are familiar with their rice.

That’s about the right distance.

Farmers are experts in growing rice. They do not need to become sake breweries in order to brew sake, nor do they need to learn the trade of a sake shop to deliver it. There are people who grow rice, and there are breweries that can brew sake. As far as ingredients are concerned, that covers most of what is needed.

However, that’s where it stops

I am capable of making sake. As I wrote in #3, it is not a technical issue.

It’s further on that you’ll come to a stop.

How many kilograms of raw materials are needed to produce it? How many bottles will be produced? How much will we pay the brewery? Who will supply the bottles and labels? Who will decide on the product name? Whose stock will the sake become? Who will sell it? What will we do if there are unsold stocks?

Suddenly, the conversation takes a turn that has nothing to do with farming or brewing.

I imagine many farmers would find this a problem. And quite rightly so. After all, they haven’t been growing rice to spend their time thinking about such things.

It’s the same for sake breweries. Even if someone brings in rice and says, ‘Please make sake with this’, we cannot simply stop once the sake is brewed. Once it becomes a product, there is the matter of selling it.

In other words, it is not simply a matter of connecting farmers and sake breweries directly to promote the use of table rice in brewing. There is another step involved in the process.

There’s a gap in the middle

So, which brewery will the farmers’ rice be supplied to, how much will be brewed, how will the product be marketed, and to whom and how will it be delivered?

We need someone to think about that.

Farmers don’t need to do everything, nor do sake breweries. It’s better for each to focus on what they do best. However, even with the necessary technical expertise, without this middle step, the product simply won’t come to fruition.

To put it another way, if we can just establish this connection, when someone asks, ‘Can we make sake from our rice?’, we won’t just reply, ‘Yes, you can’, but we’ll be able to take it a step further and ask, ‘So, how shall we make it, and who shall we supply it to?’

When I first started thinking about brewing with table rice, all I could think about was whether it was possible to make sake from Koshihikari. Now, I believe this is more important than the technical aspects.

There are rice farmers in the region, and sake breweries remain in various parts of it. Couldn’t we devise a system that makes better use of these two resources for the benefit of agriculture?

I’ll write about that in #6.

Excerpt from the book *Rice Brewing*

CEO of FARM8 ATSUSHI KABASAWA