Episode 180 Show Notes
Episode 180. In this episode, we again shine a light on the role of Sake Yeast in our series known as the Kobo Chronicles. “Irradiation” and “mutant” are not typical words you’d find in sake marketing, but Tokushima Prefecture makes it work in promoting their “LED YUME” sake yeast. By exposing yeast to blue LED lights, they’ve created new strains of sake yeast for use specifically by Tokushima Prefecture breweries. The brewers at Narutotai have taken this yeast and made a sake that give us sweet flavors – we’re talking jammy notes of pineapple and mango. A noticeably high acidity balances out the sweetness and rounds out the palate. If you’d like to see the major role that a mutant yeast variety can play in a sake, join us and listen in! #SakeRevolution
Skip to: 00:19 Show Opening
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy
Skip to: 04:05 LED Yume Yeast
A completely new yeast born from LEDs. “Narutotai LED ” uses “LED Dream Yeast” developed by Tokushima Prefecture. LED lighting, which is now commonplace, spread rapidly around the world after a company in Tokushima Prefecture invented blue light-emitting diodes. Tokushima Prefecture is conducting research into applying this technology to various fields. And so “LED Dream Yeast” was born. It is a rare yeast that is only used in sake breweries in Tokushima Prefecture. By continuously irradiating existing yeast with various types of LED light, a new yeast was developed through mutation. This has made it possible to produce a completely new type of sake .
Sour, sweet and tropical: The LED Yume Yeast 3826 Type 2 used in Naruto Tai LED is called the polyacid type, and is designed to have a very high acidity and a sweet finish. When chilled and served in a wine glass, the sour aroma of yogurt is complemented by a subtle sweet apple aroma, stimulating the appetite. The tropical and juicy flavor is expressed on the label with
Layered colorful motifs: In homage to the invention of the blue light-emitting diode, the blue layer on the label is accented with foil.
Skip to: 15:31 Sake Tasting: Narutotai LED Junmai Ginjo
Narutotai LED Junmai Ginjo
Acidity: 2.5
Alcohol: 15.0%
Brand: Narutotai (鳴門鯛)
Brewery: Honke Matsuura Shuzo (本家松浦酒造)
Classification: Junmai Ginjo
Importer/Distributor: Prestige
Prefecture: Tokushima
Rice Type: Awa Ichiba Yamadanishiki
Sake Name English: LED
Seimaibuai: 58%
SMV: -20.0
Yeast: LED YUME Yeast
Skip to: 27:38 Show Closing
This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!
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Episode 180 Transcript
John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody and welcome to Sake Revolution. This is America’s First Sake podcast and I am your host, John Puma. I’m from the Sake Notes. I’m also the administrator over at the Internet Sake Discord and the lead mod at Reddits r slash sake community.
Timothy Sullivan: 0:39
And I’m your host, Timothy. Sullivan. I’m a Sake Samurai. I’m the Director of Education at the Sake Studies Center, as well as the founder of the Urban Sake website and every week John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand. Hello John. How are you?
John Puma: 0:57
Oh, you beat me too. You, you were quick on the draw there, Tim.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:01
Yes.
John Puma: 1:01
I, I appreciate that. Uh, I’m doing, I’m doing rather well. I’m doing pretty, pretty well. Uh, how are you doing
Timothy Sullivan: 1:09
I am doing good. I have been working hard teaching sake classes, and it’s been a lot of fun living the dream, as they say.
John Puma: 1:20
Nice. Nice. I wanna just get in there really fast and say that, my Sake Revolution resolutions, they’re coming along well, one of’em is coming along. I haven’t done anything with a cert with certificate yet. I haven’t signed up for any classes yet, but. But I have been taking photos of the new bottles of sake that I open. And it’s been number one, it’s been really fun to do. Like I’ve really been enjoying that. it’s fun to have a record of the things that you’ve been tasting. Um, and that’s, you know, I know a lot of people will do like photos. They’ll take notes on top of that. Uh, I haven’t been doing notes, but I have been doing photos, which reminds me of like what I’ve been, what I’ve been doing. So this, this, this exercise has been kind of fun and, and really, um, a good time so far. I do need to do the other bit, you know, I’m way behind on that, but, you know, we’ll get there, you know.
Timothy Sullivan: 2:17
Well, JP, I can totally vouch for you because I am signed up as a subscriber to your Google Photo album. So every time you post your photos of what you’ve been drinking, I get a little alert and I’ve been checking up on you, and you’re doing a good job.
John Puma: 2:34
You know, I think it’s important that I, I think it’s important that I, I. Have things in place to keep me honest. And so yeah, people are allowed to, to, to subscribe to the album and they’ll see what I have been drinking. I believe that’s in the show notes from that episode we did on the Sake Revolution resolutions. Maybe, maybe not. But it’s been a lot of fun and, and you Oh, well. Maybe we can put in these shows notes and you too can be notified every time I open up a new bottle of sake. Please note it’s not, that’s not what’s happening because there’s a lot of times, like I’ve been realizing I didn’t post four or five pictures from like a, a like a week, and then I’ll just post’em all at once on like a Tuesday afternoon. That’s not what’s going on on my Tuesday afternoon. Just FYI, no, I figured you knew that.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:22
my favorite part, my favorite part of checking out the album is always looking in the background to see where you’re drinking. Like, I’m like, is that asoko? Is that his house? Is, is that accidental? Like, where is he? Where? Where in the world is John Puma?
John Puma: 3:38
More often than not, it’s my house,
Timothy Sullivan: 3:40
Yeah.
John Puma: 3:41
but yeah. But it’s been, it’s been pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so, but that’s, that’s not why we’re here today, Tim. We’re not here to talk about me taking pictures of bottles of sake. Um,
Timothy Sullivan: 3:52
although it, it is nice to get an update on your resolution,
John Puma: 3:55
yeah, you know, I think it’s important, uh, we are here to actually talk about, uh, about sake. How about that? We’re gonna taste and talk about sake. What are we tasting and talking about today, Tim?
Timothy Sullivan: 4:05
Well, we’re going to dip our toe back into the world of what I’ve been calling the Kobo Chronicles. Kobo. Kobo is the Japanese word for yeast. And maybe we should just do a quick review of what yeast is and what role it plays in sake. And, uh, so it’s called kobo in Japanese and. I often define yeast as the engine of alcoholic fermentation. So it’s the microorganism that eats sugar and gives off alcohol and CO2 as a byproduct. And, uh, that is the role of yeast. And in my mind’s eye, I always picture it like a little pacman. Waka Waka Waka Waka chomping its way.
John Puma: 4:55
and it’s important to note that like, for, everybody at home, the use of yeast here is not unique to sake. This is, as you pointed out, something is an all alcoholic beverages. It’s like alcohol doesn’t happen without yeast. Is that more or less correct.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:08
That’s right.
John Puma: 5:09
Yeah. And here we
Timothy Sullivan: 5:10
So there, yeah, we’ve talked about yeast many times on the podcast. It’s always good to review the basics and, the Kobo Chronicles is all about examining different varieties or maybe unusual varieties of yeast and how they can, how they can, uh. contribute to flavors, aromas, and that kind of thing. So we, we both got our hands on a sake that has a very unique yeast, and we’re going to talk about that and taste that sake today.
John Puma: 5:41
Yeah, I’m excited. And I think that, I think that in the sake world, or at least where it comes to, like people talking about sake and like what you see on the label, in a lot of cases, a lot of attention is given to rice, right? What kind of rice is in this? What kind of rice? And, and very rarely, not never, but very rarely do we get. Talk of what kind of yeast is in this. And so the idea that, that the focus here on the series and this bottle is on the yeast, is really cool and I’m excited to, to dive into it with you.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:18
Yeah, you’re definitely right. Yeast is very often like in the background and not the star when it comes to, usually we talk about the rice, as you said, or sometimes even the water Before. We’ll talk about the yeast variety.
John Puma: 6:32
Yeah. Okay. Even though you’re absolutely right about that. But not today. Today it’s all about that yeast.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:39
Yes.
John Puma: 6:39
and and what is that yeast, Tim, what is that Yeast.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:41
well, today’s yeast. Today’s yeast is a mutant.
John Puma: 6:47
Mutant. Oh my goodness.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:50
Yes
John Puma: 6:51
does Stan Lee know about this?
Timothy Sullivan: 6:55
so. This is, and we’re gonna talk about how to pronounce this, but it is known as, uh, LED or lead, so it’s the letters. L-E-D-L-E-D-L-E-D, or lead. What do you, what do you think it is? I, I said LED.
John Puma: 7:17
Well, normally I would be inclined to say lead’cause I think LED I’m thinking of, you know, light emitting diodes. But I don’t know a lot about this yeast yet. I’m trying to go into this with an open mind. no contamination.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:32
Right. Well, we’re, I will give you a major, major hint. The mutant nature of this yeast is connected to lights.
John Puma: 7:43
Ooh. Now I’m leaning LED. That’s
Timothy Sullivan: 7:46
Yes. Let’s, let’s go with LED. So. The sake that we’re tasting today is Narutotai, LED sake.
John Puma: 7:57
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 7:58
It’s uh, out of Tokushima Prefecture. And, this is a sake that is basically marketed and it’s main attraction is really the yeast that they use, this mutant yeast. And maybe we can talk a little bit about how it was created.
John Puma: 8:17
Yeah. Yeah, it’s very interesting. And so this is, these are the guys that are known for the, for the can. Is this, is this not the case?
Timothy Sullivan: 8:26
Yes. Now we’ve featured, i’ve infamously called it the oil Can.
John Puma: 8:32
Yes you have.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:34
And, uh, to the, to the president’s face President of the company.
John Puma: 8:37
Uh, and what was his reaction to that?
Timothy Sullivan: 8:40
uh, I think nonplus is
John Puma: 8:43
Oh, okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:44
the word.
John Puma: 8:47
That’s not the reaction you want.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:49
yeah. So, Myshell is a big fan of this brand. Is she not?
John Puma: 8:53
Oh, she’s a huge fan of this brand. The biggest,
Timothy Sullivan: 8:58
Yeah, so the classic Narutotai is Which one?
John Puma: 9:02
It’s that It’s at Shiboritate Ginjo Nama Gensh u, if I’m not mistaken.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:09
Yeah. Genshu?
John Puma: 9:10
Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:11
And it’s in that really cool aluminum can,
John Puma: 9:15
Right. Just don’t call it oil can apparently.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:17
Call it an oil can. To the President’s face, it’s something they’re really, really known for and this is a different product from their lineup
John Puma: 9:27
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:28
and they’re calling it the LED sake. And I have a little information for you about how this yeast was created. Uh, it was made in Tokushima. So this is a yeast that is only used in Tokushima prefecture.
John Puma: 9:45
All right.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:47
And it was based off the work from the Tokushima Prefectural Industrial Technology Center, and they did work with, researching Irradiating yeast with UV LEDs, and what this does is it creates mutant strains of the yeast when they zap it with the LED light. And I also read that it’s the blue wavelength in particular
John Puma: 10:16
Okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:17
They’re applying to this yeast, and then when the yeast is reproducing, it changes its DNAA little bit and they get different, different strains of the yeast, and they found one that they thought was particularly good for making sake.
John Puma: 10:35
Very interesting. I like that. So they took the, they existing yeast and they like bombarded it just to kind of see what it would, not just to see what it would do, but, to see what effect it had. And I imagine they did a lot of these experiments and and this was one that, gave positive result.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:50
Yes. And I mean things like, things like mutant and irradiate are not the words we traditionally use in marketing sake, right?
John Puma: 11:00
It’s a first for me,
Timothy Sullivan: 11:03
it’s gonna be really interesting to taste this. Have you had this before?
John Puma: 11:08
I actually have. I had this in Tokushima last year as a matter of fact. I happened to be in Tokushima. And number one, tokushima is a wonderful Prefecture. The city is absolutely delightful to, um, to walk around in. The food is wonderful. The people are friendly. People don’t know about Tokushima, but don’t they, people don’t go to Tokushima. They should. It’s wonderful.
Timothy Sullivan: 11:28
You visited this prefecture and I’ve never been there, so you’re one up on me.
John Puma: 11:35
Aha.
Timothy Sullivan: 11:36
You scooped me, Puma.
John Puma: 11:39
If only I went to the brewery while I was there, then I would really scoop you.
Timothy Sullivan: 11:44
so the name of this yeast is LED, Yume Kobo, which means dream yeast. So that’s dream yeast.’cause I guess it produces a dreamy sake. I don’t know. I.
John Puma: 12:00
I hope it does. I’m look, I’m excited to find out.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:03
Now should I, should, should I read a, tasting note to, tell us what the promise of the flavor is before we open?
John Puma: 12:10
Sure. Let’s find out what the, what the marketing says now.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:16
Alright, so let’s see. Okay, so it says, the various lights of the LED irradiate, the existing yeast and develop new yeast through mutations. This allows us to produce a completely new type of sake, sour, sweet, and tropical.
John Puma: 12:35
Ooh.
Timothy Sullivan: 12:36
Uh, it’s designed to have a very high acidity and a sweet finish. Drink the sake chilled in a wine glass, and you’ll get a sour aroma like yogurt. Slightly sweet aroma like apple, which will Whet your appetite.
John Puma: 12:52
Oh
Timothy Sullivan: 12:53
Alright? Yes.
John Puma: 12:55
Wonderful. That, that sounds great. Yeah, I kind of want to, wanna give that a shot. Now this is, that’s very
Timothy Sullivan: 13:00
Yeah. Yeah. Before we open, let’s talk about this label too.
John Puma: 13:06
Yeah. for us in, in the West, we primarily experienced the eye through their flagship can product that Shiboritate Ginjo Genshu, And that is, oh, a squat. White can with some Kanji on it. Not a lot else going on. This on the other hand, is a very elegant looking bottle. It’s one of those, um, longer neck, you know, kind of fatter bottom bottles that I’ve been seeing a little bit more of these days. Does it, Tim, is there a name for this?
Timothy Sullivan: 13:42
Did you just say this bottle has a fat bottom?
John Puma: 13:45
It does. I
Timothy Sullivan: 13:48
covering the ears of my bottle. When you said that, I think that this is one of
John Puma: 13:55
calling it as I see it, Tim. I don’t know.
Timothy Sullivan: 13:59
The bottle shape that I know doesn’t have a specific name, but it is wider on the bottom and not the, the, the higher neck. I didn’t say it had a fat bottom. I said it’s wider on the bottom, but it has a longer narrow neck swan like neck. Very beautiful. I.
John Puma: 14:15
Yes. That’s very nice. And then the label is very colorful. it’s very colorful. It’s, and contrasting with the kanji filled label of the, of their f. Mainline product. There’s none on the front of this one. It’s just a bunch of colors and patterns and even, even a bit of a different texture. Some foil on here. It looks very lovely. Did they ever say, in any, anything that you’ve read, what they were trying to represent with this
Timothy Sullivan: 14:43
Well, I am putting two and two together looking at this. And the, the information I read about the LED light, remember I said they used the blue wavelength in particular? And the blue on this design is the one that gets the foil. So the blue is the blue. A line on the label is like sparkling and glowing with the foil treatment. I think these are all the different wavelengths of light. I think that’s what this rec represents in a very abstract way. But the blue one gets the special treatment and on the side it says LED in the foil as
John Puma: 15:24
In the blue foil.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:25
Yeah. I think that refers to the blue wavelength.
John Puma: 15:28
That stands to reason. I like it,
Timothy Sullivan: 15:30
Yeah.
John Puma: 15:31
but very, yeah, very colorful, very striking, bottle here. And, uh, yeah, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna. I give everybody at home a quick rundown of the stats for this sake. as, Tim pointed out, this is the Naruto. LED sake. It is a Junmai Ginjo from, Honke Matsuura, which is of course in Tokushima, which is, uh, on Shikoku, uh, island. And the A BV here is 15%, the acidity is 2.5, which sounds high to me. That’s, that’s up there, right? That’s very high. We, we’ve got, AWA Ichiba Yamadanishiki Rice from Tokushima. Now Tim, we know what Yamada Nishiki Rice is. We know what Tokushima is. Uh, what is Awa Ichiba?
Timothy Sullivan: 16:25
Awa Ichiba refers to the location, so this is, uh, Tokushima grown Yamadanishiki.
John Puma: 16:31
Ah, very nice. Very nice. Well, they take that Awa Ichiba Yamada Nishiki from Tokushima, and they Mill it down to 58% of its original size. Uh, and then here’s, uh, here’s where things get a little extreme. The sake meter value is minus 20. If you’re wondering how they were gonna deal with that 2.5 acidity. I think we know where they’re going. I think that they’re gonna try and meet somewhere in the middle with this very, very low SMV and that very high acidity. What do you think, Tim?
Timothy Sullivan: 17:01
Yep,
John Puma: 17:02
Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:02
that sounds right. And of course the yeast is our LED Dream sake yeast.
John Puma: 17:08
Yes. Well, I didn’t think I needed to mention that,
Timothy Sullivan: 17:10
Well, I.
John Puma: 17:12
but I appreciate you being thorough.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:15
I, I’m very, very thorough. Someone might start listening in the middle, you know,
John Puma: 17:21
Uh, if you listen, if you just started the show, please go back to the beginning of the show. You don’t have to go to the beginning of like episode one of Sake Revolution, but for this particular episode, just do me a solid and go back to the beginning. We put a lot of work into that. All right, so let’s, Tim, let’s open
Timothy Sullivan: 17:38
so we got the stats. Yes, we got it. Let’s open it.
John Puma: 17:43
Please do. All right, so we’ve got it in the glass.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:48
Yep, I’ve got the, uh, Narutotai, LED sake, in the glass. Let’s give it a smell.
John Puma: 17:55
Yeah. Hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:00
It smells fruity to me. I.
John Puma: 18:02
Tropical, it may just be that they imprinted that word for me there, but, Hmm. Yeah. Very for me. Very tropical on the nose.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:16
Yep. It smells, smells a little like, um, jammy and mango. Not too much melon this time. I mean, you and I love to talk about melon, but it’s not as melon. Yeah. I.
John Puma: 18:29
Yeah. It’s not, it’s not very Melony at all. It is as, yeah. Much more of that mango maybe. Maybe a little, oh, maybe a little pineapple. Hmm. Yeah. Are you ready to
Timothy Sullivan: 18:40
give it a taste. I am. Hmm.
John Puma: 18:46
Hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:47
Oh, it’s interesting.
John Puma: 18:49
That is a blast of, of fruit.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:52
Yeah.
John Puma: 18:54
Yeah,
Timothy Sullivan: 18:55
It almost tastes like a starburst.
John Puma: 18:57
it’s, it’s, this is not subtle in the least.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:02
it’s very rich and juicy and sweet, but the acidity comes on the finish for me, like it’s bright and acidic on the finish.
John Puma: 19:11
Yeah, it is. bear with me for a moment. The. The OG Narutotai that, that Genshu is well known for just being like a big intense like blast of, nama Assult and this is like, it’s got that pow to it, but this is fruit and sweet and sour. it’s a very different style, but the. The core energy that that this brand brings, that’s take no prisoners. Here’s the flavor. Appears to be present.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:43
Yeah, it’s not shy. Neither of their sakes are shy. Yeah.
John Puma: 19:48
Yeah. They’re just going big or going home and they’re, they’re going big here.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:52
I think one of the biggest differences between the classic Narutotai that we featured before, and this one is that the alcohol percentage is different. The Narutotai in the can, the Nama Genshu is just so bombastic and high alcohol. This is juicy, sweet high acid, but the alcohol’s only at 15%, so it doesn’t bowl me over in that same way. Let me know if you think this is a fair statement, but I think that if you are a lover of Juicy White Wines, that you would really like this. What do you think?
John Puma: 20:31
Yeah. It does have that high acidity white, yeah, white wine’s like a Riesling, it’s like pow, like, you know, or a, like a Muscat, like almost kind of thing. it, is it just big and vibrant? It’s a lot of fun to drink.. I don’t think it’s something you can just, like absently, keep sipping.’cause it is so intense. you know, you’re, you’re gonna get a little bit of like maybe palate fatigue for a bit. It’s, it’s just, that’s a lot. It’s ti it’s almost tiring. This is not an nama, but it does. Um, and in some ways feel like one, it’s’cause it’s so vibrant. Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:02
Well, the thing that is really exciting for me about this sake is that it does push the envelope. You know, we don’t want sakes to always be the same or never innovate, and it sounds like with this mutant yeast, they were able to, innovate in a way and make the sake more expressive. And it is. In. In my opinion, it’s leaning more towards a wine like sake, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think that will attract a lot of wine lovers to sake.
John Puma: 21:33
Yeah, it could. It definitely could. And. You know, as somebody who enjoys the wine from time to time. Yeah. This is definitely really nice.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:42
Yeah. Now we have to ask ourselves, I. What we would pair with this, because it’s a very unique sake.
John Puma: 21:50
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:51
It’s got the sweetness going on, it’s got the high acidity, um, it’s got that, uh, kind of muted tropical fruit.
John Puma: 22:02
Mm-hmm.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:02
And I do have some pairing recommendations from the distributor.
John Puma: 22:10
Mm.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:11
So should I read those and we can react to them? Do a live
John Puma: 22:15
Yeah, I, I think that’ll be fun. Let’s go for that.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:18
Okay. So the first one is cheese risotto. Cheese risotto
John Puma: 22:25
I cannot opine.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:29
because of the cheese.
John Puma: 22:30
Because of the cheese. But
Timothy Sullivan: 22:32
For new listeners, for new listeners.
John Puma: 22:35
John does not
Timothy Sullivan: 22:35
John Puma does not eat cheese. That was a, that was a misfire on my
John Puma: 22:40
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. It’s fine. Tim, what about you?
Timothy Sullivan: 22:44
I think it would be great.
John Puma: 22:45
Okay. So that that one works
Timothy Sullivan: 22:47
risotto. Risotto is, is often cooked with cheese and white wine and I think that it gives that a little bit of acidity to cheese Risotto. Cheese risotto is irresistible in my book, so, I think that’s wonderful. They also say. Caesar salad.
John Puma: 23:05
okay. I’m here for that. And I think that this would go really well with that. Uh, okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:12
They said fruit. Fruit platter.
John Puma: 23:14
Sure.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:15
Yeah. I don’t sit around with a fruit platter all
John Puma: 23:18
No. Yeah. me either. And so I’m like, yeah, I guess that would work. Sure.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:26
And also in the dessert section they also say cheesecake with blueberry sauce.
John Puma: 23:32
That’s very specific.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:35
I’m not a big fan. Scott will tell you, I’m not a big fan of blueberry in general, but just plain cheesecake. I could see this. It has the sweetness to put a foot, put a foot into dessert territory, but I don’t think you need to like, this isn’t so sweet that I feel like it’s a dessert sake. What do you think?
John Puma: 23:55
I don’t, no, I don’t think it’s there. I think that the Caesar salad kind of made my eyes light up a little bit. That sounded nice. I have also found the recommendations, uh, at least, uh, I think these are from the importer as well. I see also roast beef here. That’s an interesting idea. That’s like a, a, a, you know, a heavier flavor. And I think that the high acidity on this would, would perhaps, be tamed a little bit by it. I think. I think that’s a fun way to have it. I’d be interesting.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:23
Yeah, well, let’s come up with our own food pairing recommendations too. This is, it’s not easy, but this is a muscle that we have to exercise. Like we have to envision our food pairing options. And the more you do it, the easier it gets to kind of envision what you would have with this. So I really like the idea of a salad for sure. Caesar salad sounds great. Raspberry vinegarette would be great. I often go to that with sake, and I think this would pair really well with, pardon me, John, but a, a cheese, cheese plate. This is a sake I would feature in my cheese pairing class for
John Puma: 25:03
I was, I was just about to ask you that.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:05
Yeah.
John Puma: 25:07
Um, great. And I also, so, um, do you think that something with Lemon would clash with this?
Timothy Sullivan: 25:14
Hmm. I think the, the acidity from a lemon based vinegarette or a lemon dressing would be great. And that makes me also think of something like a lemon chicken, you know? Um, I love lemon chicken and I think that would go great with this. Okay. So we won’t go hungry. And there’s lots, there’s lots to pair with this sake.
John Puma: 25:36
Yes, I, I agree.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:39
And you know, when you see those numbers on the stats, like acidity 2.5, SMV minus 20, it’s like, oh my God, what am I gonna do with this thing? It’s out of bounds in a lot of ways but tasting it, it’s like, oh, this is not that crazy. After all, this is not a funky sake for our funky sake series, I
John Puma: 25:58
it is not. No, no. It is definitely not funky. Uh, and we mean that we don’t mean that as an insult. Um, yeah, no, this is not a funky sake. It is a really well balanced sake. The numbers may make you think, oh my God, this is going to be absolutely insane. But because you, you have a high number on either side, it’s, meeting in the middle in a way. And it’s really nice.
Timothy Sullivan: 26:24
Yeah, it’s the alcohol acidity and, sweetness, all balance each other out. And, uh, it definitely leans more on the sweet side. I think if you buy the sake, you should know it’s gonna be on the sweeter side, but it’s not overpowering, it’s not out of balance and super unique. And I think it’s great that we can, uh, have new yeast varieties like this. This LED. Dream yeast or LED you may, and, have it produce these interesting, flavors I think is great. And, I’m excited to see. I know that a few other brewers in Tokushima are gonna be using this yeast as well, so maybe we can get our hands on another LED sake that uses this yeast and do a taste comparison. That would be fun for a future episode.
John Puma: 27:14
That would be a lot of fun. And is, there’s one last thing I want to, to, to talk about here with this and that is, to me at least, and feel free, I definitely want to get your, feedback. But I think that this is a sake, we want to definitely serve more on the colder side of things. Uh, it does not feel like something that we wanna warm up too much and it doesn’t feel like something that’s gonna love being. Uh, love being all that room temperature, either, uh, I don’t know what your thoughts are.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:41
It doesn’t matter what my thoughts are, John. The back label says, serve chilled. Only the brewery is telling us Serve chilled only. I.
John Puma: 27:53
the power of the brewery compels us. Well then I’m glad I, uh, brought that up.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:01
Yeah, so the brewery recommends 51 degrees Fahrenheit. If you go into their, deeper notes online, they say that 51 Fahrenheit is the magic temperature, which is quite, quite cold for sake. And so they want this well chilled, and I think that helps hold the integrity of the sake together. Like maybe when it gets towards room temperature, it becomes a little more flabby. But, uh, I think. Um, when it’s chilled, it kind of keeps it a little crisper on the finish. And, uh, I, I would agree with that. So I think chilled is the way to go.
John Puma: 28:35
Hmm. Alright, well, Tim, this has been a lot of fun. We had a, a nice new, exciting sake and I, I like the series too, like that. We’re putting a spotlight on Kobo. Um,
Timothy Sullivan: 28:46
Who knew that a irradiation and mutation could be so much fun?
John Puma: 28:51
be X-Men anyway.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:57
well, well, John, it was so much fun to taste with you. Thanks for sharing this sake with me. And, um, I wanna thank our listeners as well for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed our show. Now, if you are one of our. Patreon supporters, we want to send you a special hi. Hello, and thank you for supporting us. If any listeners out there are not in our Patreon community and you’d like to join, visit patreon.com/sake revolution. And join us. We have a monthly live happy hour the first Wednesday of every month, and you can talk to us live in person on Zoom, and we’d love to see you there. So join us on Patreon.
John Puma: 29:37
And, when you have a chance, if you’d like other ways to support our show, please mention us to people, you know, mention us to your friends. Also, I. Give us a little shout on your podcast platform of choice, a little review, whatever amount of stars you think is appropriate. goes a long way towards getting our podcast to the top of the, relevant charts. When people search for Sake podcast, we want them to find Sake Revolution, and this will help out. So on that note, Tim, raise your glass. Remember to keep drinking sake and Kanpai.