New-Generation Sake

Sake is booming internationally, to the surprise of some Japanese drinks fans who still think of it as the boring tipple of juiced-up Japanese elders. A cohort of experimental brewers are upending fixed ideas about sake classifications, rice polishing ratios, flavor additions, desirable aromas, and acidity profiles—and in the process, ushering in an exciting, boundary-pushing era.  

Since the advent of Japan’s modern Meiji era (1868 to 1912), the goal of Japanese sake makers has been...