Terada Honke

The leading light in natural sakes, and one of the rare natural sake breweries around, Masaru Terada is the 24th generation kuramoto of an almost 350 year old brewery. As such, he believes in making sakes that hark back to centuries past.

Established in 1670, Terada Honke made a decision about 30 years ago to part ways with the industrial brewing methods of postwar Japan and take sake back to its roots. 24th-generation kuramoto Terada Masaru is following in his predecessor’s footsteps, leading a brewery where the whole incredibly labor-intensive process is done by hand.

Probably the most radical brewery of Japan where all modern machinery has been done away with and natural, organic and handwork are the new keywords. Terada Honke is one of the very few breweries that does not use any cultivated yeast, relying solely on the natural yeast culture of their brewery. The entire production is fermented in the slow-brew kimoto method where no lactic acid is added to the starter (moto). The rice used is organic, most of it is polished far less than the average in the industry. Fermentation relies on brewery propagated kōji (a rarity) and either kimoto or bodaimoto fermentation methods, which when combined with the little-polished rice, results in tastes that are bold, full-bodied, and expressive with a signature high presence of lactic acid.

Compared to sakes that most people are familiar with, Terada Honke sakes have more acid, is robust in flavour and have potential for ageing (like you would with wine). 

It was only after marrying into Satomi Terada's family brewery that he understood the difference between commercial and craft sake. It's fair to say that he is now pushing that distinction further than most.