Sake Company Hakkaisan Embarks on a New Journey with First Whisky Offering

Hakkaisan Brewing Co, a historic sake producer based in Niigata Prefecture, is embracing its next century with bold ambition, unveiling new projects that extend its craft beyond Japanese borders and even beyond sake.

At a recent media event, company leaders presented their global vision, introducing a Brooklyn-based sake brewery and a newly developed Japanese whisky.

The event opened with remarks from Jiro Nagumo of the Hakkaisan Brewing Group, who reflected on the company's roots and philosophy. Founded in 1922 in the rural village of Jonai, Hakkaisan began as one of several ventures aimed at revitalizing the region.

"From the outset, we have aspired to create sake that is essential to people's everyday lives — smooth, balanced, and refined," Nagumo said.

Spirit of Reinvention

Now in its 103rd year, the company has evolved significantly under successive generations of leadership. Nagumo, who took the helm at age 28 as the sixth company president, described his journey of leading a team of close collaborators to scale the company more than 100-fold.

Yet the true challenge, he said, lies in ensuring longevity. "Everything ends. Nothing lasts forever. So for a company to endure, it must continue to evolve," he remarked.

That spirit of reinvention was a recurring theme throughout the presentation. One major shift came when Hakkaisan redefined its positioning in the sake market, moving away from being a luxury brand and toward producing premium yet accessible sake.

This included making high-quality sake available in everyday settings like supermarkets and ensuring that even standard offerings met or exceeded ginjo-level standards. Ginjo-level standards mean using highly polished rice and meticulous brewing to produce refined, aromatic sake.

Hakkaisan has also invested in regional revitalization through its Oyama-no-Sato project. This helped turn Uonuma in Niigata into a sake tourism destination, attracting over 300,000 visitors in three years.

But the company's ambitions stretch beyond Japan.

Brooklyn Brewing

One of the event's key announcements was the launch of a new collaboration with Brooklyn Kura, a sake brewery in New York. The facility will produce a local version of Hakkaisan's Tokubetsu Junmai sake using American-grown rice and New York water.

*Brooklyn Kura's sake (courtesy of Accenture).*

Though the ingredients differ from those in Niigata, the brewing philosophy remains unchanged. The head brewer is Japanese, and the local team has undergone extensive training. This initiative allows Hakkaisan to deliver fresher sake to American consumers while building deeper cultural ties through shared craftsmanship.

For Brian Polen and Brandon Doughan, the founders of Brooklyn Kura, the partnership with Hakkaisan marks a new chapter in their journey to redefine sake for American audiences. "We're not Japanese, we're not trying to make nihonshu [sake]," Doughan explained. "We feel that the way beer and wine became popular in the US is because Americans took ownership of the process. We're trying to do that with sake."

Local Flavor, Global Roots

The duo has been focused on making sake more approachable, designing their Brooklyn taproom to feel more like a wine or beer bar than a traditional Japanese sake shop. "We're trying to take the fear out of the wall of Japanese language labels," Doughan said. "New Yorkers walk in and say, 'this feels familiar.'"

Water quality played a key role in site selection. "We lucked out," said Doughan, noting the soft water from the Catskills. "New York City has this protected watershed — it's ideal for brewing."

Polen, who discovered sake during a wedding trip to Japan in 2013, emphasized that building a sake brewery from scratch in the United States involved both improvisation and strategic collaboration.

"There's a supply chain for rice and yeast now, but equipment was a different story. We had to cobble things together from beer and wine setups," he recalled. Working with Hakkaisan has given them access to higher-grade equipment and expertise.

Debuting a Japanese Whisky

The company also revealed its first-ever whisky: Hakkaisan Japanese whisky. Distilled and aged in Niigata using snowmelt from Mt Hakkai and matured in American white oak barrels, the whisky is smooth, slightly sweet, and elegantly understated. "We want to create a whisky that is clean and refined — a natural extension of our fermentation philosophy," Nagumo said.

Slated for limited release in April, the whisky represents more than just a new product. It is part of Hakkaisan's broader transformation from a sake brewery into a full-fledged fermentation company.

*Hakkaisan's Uonuma single grain whisky (courtesy of Accenture).*

Market Strategy

The Brooklyn-brewed sake will initially be sold only in New York, with plans to expand distribution. Meanwhile, the whisky will begin as a small-batch offering, with a gradual scale-up envisioned for both domestic and international markets.

During a Q&A session, company leaders addressed questions about taste differences between the US and Japanese sakes, the intended audience for the whisky, and potential collaborations with American breweries. A recurring theme was Hakkaisan's commitment to quality and cross-cultural exchange.

Distilling the Future

Closing the event, Nagumo emphasized the need for continued innovation. With Japan's population declining and sake consumption falling, the company sees its future in reaching new audiences both at home and abroad. The Brooklyn project, he said, is not just about exporting a product but about planting roots for sake culture in new soil.

"Whether it's through brewing, distilling, or food culture, we will continue to pursue our mission of enriching everyday life," he said.

With sake, whisky, and a century of brewing expertise behind it, Hakkaisan Brewing is charting a new path — one that balances deep tradition with bold reinvention.

Author: Daniel Manning