When Shinobu Kato moved to the U.S. in 2004, the sake obtainable inside his price range introduced him again to a budget sake he drank throughout his school years in Tokyo. Finally, whereas working for Nissan in Nashville, Kato tried his hand at homebrewing the rice-based beverage to make up for the market’s dearth. The enterprise proved a hit: In April 2020, lower than 10 years following his first batch, Kato opened the doorways to Kato Sake Works in Brooklyn. Right here, Kato shares a peek into the 500-square-foot brewery’s operations.
9:00 A.M.
The gap from my home to the brewery is simply about 20 minutes strolling. On the stroll, I hearken to a Spanish language program. The neighborhood we’re in in Bushwick has a big Latino inhabitants, and the proprietor of the close by laundromat is a man from Mexico. We began speaking loads and he offers me Spanish classes each time I see him. I ask him, “Say that once more, say it slowly, yet one more time.” I made a decision, I’ve a brewery right here and I reside on this neighborhood, I ought to in all probability be capable to converse Spanish.
9:30 A.M.
My assistant brewer, Joanie, begins at 7 a.m., so after I arrive, the washed rice is within the steamer, which warms the brewery within the wintertime. We use Calrose rice for our sake. It’s what I initially began homebrewing with as a result of it was the one rice obtainable on the homebrewer’s scale. But in addition, Calrose has an attention-grabbing historical past: One mother or father is a local Japanese sake rice introduced by the primary immigrants to California. They tried to develop it within the U.S. however failed, till finally they discovered a technique to hybridize it with a local American rice, after which it survived. It’s a pleasant historical past about immigrants, and I’m a first-generation immigrant, too, in order that’s a lovely story to me. I need to make my sake like that—I don’t need to import stuff from Japan, there’s premium Japanese sake obtainable already.
I begin my day cleansing and organizing the brewery. Our area is so small, lower than 500 sq. ft. We’ve all of the tools—rice washer, steamer, fermentation tanks, urgent tools, and so forth—in a studio condo–measurement area, so we don’t have the posh to depart stuff round.
11:00 A.M.
The remainder of the morning is spent tackling emergencies. Generally the issue is with the fermentation—it’s too sluggish or too lively. As soon as, the pasteurization tools exploded and we had a sizzling sake bathe all over the place. We’re in our second yr of operation, so we’re virtually on the stage of being extra proactive than reactive. [Editor’s note: This article was written for the November/December 2021 issue.]
1:00 P.M.
Since Joanie and I are the one full-time staff, the brewing work is shared between the 2 of us. The opposite half of my time, I’m doing all of the enjoyable administrative stuff to run the enterprise. As we speak, our month-to-month rice supply arrives and we put it into storage, then spend the remainder of the afternoon conditioning and ending the sake. We do each step—filtration, pasteurization, and bottling—manually. We often make lower than 200 bottles of sake at a time, so it’s manageable. It takes two months for a contemporary batch of rice to turn into sake and we start a brand new batch each week, so we usually have six or seven batches going directly. As we speak, we’re doing filtration and tomorrow will probably be the pasteurization day. Often, we pasteurize our sake as the method kills the yeast and denatures the enzymes, locking within the taste.
3:00 P.M.
Joanie’s shift ends and the brewery switches over to gross sales. The unique concept was to have our store operate as a tasting room. Then the lockdown occurred, and since then we’ve been working extra like a bottle store. Our sake is a bit bolder in comparison with typical Japanese sake as a result of American meals is louder, noisier—to pair effectively, the sake wants to have the ability to stand as much as it. I like my sake, nevertheless it’s just a little bit totally different from the sake I’d order at a pleasant omakase restaurant. That’s intentional, as a result of individuals in Bushwick don’t go to omakase each evening. They eat pizza and sizzling canine and tacos, so I’d prefer to make our sake extra approachable.
All of the processes and methods we observe are fairly genuine, and we’re very a lot geeking out about all the standard strategies, however that’s not our advertising and marketing pitch. I want to make sake a much bigger a part of the ingesting tradition right here. So, perhaps there’s a cease at a sake brewery on a beer brewery tour or one thing. I need to see my sake not solely on the sushi restaurant however at extra basic locations like wine bars.
6:00 P.M.
The issue with being a 20-minute stroll from house is the good bars and breweries in between. Since my spouse and I are within the business, most people working close by are a part of the identical neighborhood. I often cease by not less than one of many bars. If we make a brand new batch or have half-filled bottles, I’ll carry these alongside. My spouse and I don’t go to eating places per se, our precedence is drink earlier than meals.
