Arkansas Rice Series: Interview w. Fumiya Miura of Dassai Blue Sake Brewery

While Dassai has been a household name in Japan for decades, it's just the beginning of their notoriety in the U.S. Their junmai daiginjos are elegant and iconic, making it one of the few sakes that people actually remember and ask for by name at Umami Mart.

Established in 1948 in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Asahi Shuzo created the brand Dassai to create a premium experience. So it seemed fitting when they opened their first U.S. brewery at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York in 2023.

This month, we are featuring their Dassai Blue 35 Junmai Daiginjo to highlight Arkansas rice. This is the first sake they are making on the Hyde Park campus with 100% Arkansas rice. Vice President Fumiya Miura of Dassai Blue (pictured above) was generous to share the ethos and process behind the new brewery.

Yoko: We are really excited to offer Dassai Blue 35 Junmai Daiginjo to our members this month as part of our Arkansas Rice Series! Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your role at Dassai Blue?

Fumiya Miura: Yes, I am Vice President of Dassai Blue. I originally came here as the director of the production and just got promoted to be the vice president.

Congratulations! Can you tell me how Dassai Blue ended up in Hyde Park? And how did the relationship with the Culinary Institute of America evolve to become a collaboration? 

In 2016, the CIA planned to create a Japanese cuisine curriculum in response to the worldwide popularity of Japanese cuisine. They also had a beverage class in addition to the cooking class, where food is paired with alcoholic beverages. The former president of the CIA suggested that it would be necessary to add Japanese sake to the beverage class if a Japanese cuisine was to be created. Asahi Shuzo (our brewery in Yamaguchi Prefecture) was approached by the CIA. The collaboration began there and we ended up in a building on campus that used to house a grocery store.

That's so interesting. It seems like the educational aspect was baked into the conversation from the beginning.

Yes. Kenzo Shimotori, the CEO of Dassai Blue participates in pairings with food made by students, and gives lectures with alumni of CIA and talks about “What is Sake?" and "What is Dassai?" He also invites guests of CIA to our brewery tours and sake tastings, giving them great experience of sake overall. 

We also provide food made by CIA students to the general public on brewery tours.

In a few words, can you describe the concept of Dassai Blue? 

Leaving Japan's Dassai behind and heading to the new brewery in New York, I aim to make a sake that surpasses Japanese Dassai while using all American ingredients. (The next batches of Blue 23 and 50 will be made with a blend of Japanese and Arkansas rice, while the 35 is made entirely of Arkansas rice.)

We want to convey that sake can be made deliciously, regardless of the country where we make it.

Do you have exchange programs between the staff at Yamaguchi and New York? How do the two locations influence each other?

While some brewers from Japan have visited the New York brewery, local staff has never traveled to Yamaguchi before. 

Once they learned about sake brewing and gained a certain level of knowledge and experience, we will plan to send them to Yamaguchi brewery. 

Ok, let's talk about rice! Why did they start growing sake rice in Arkansas?

This is because a lot of small sake breweries have been established in America, creating demand. Chris Isbell (of Isbell Farms, who grows the rice in Arkansas) was the one who originally made the sake rice, so we started buying it from him.

Why did you choose Arkansas sake rice over California sake rice?

How does the Yamada Nishiki in Arkansas compare to the Yamada Nishiki you've brewed with in Japan?

When evaluated by Japanese standards, I don't think American rice is yet at the level of first-class Japanese rice. However, my impression after using American rice for two years is that New York water and American rice go extremely well together. I am personally very interested in this aspect of the process of making great sake. We still use rice imported from Japan for some of our sakes, but starting this year we have switched to using more than half of the rice we use to Arkansas rice. 

Can you elaborate on how American rice and water go well together? Is it because the minerals in the water? Does the U.S. rice dissolve better than Japanese rice in U.S. water? Is there a symbiosis in the flavor? 

New York water has a lot of minerals and ions, which makes it easier to bring out the power of koji, so I think it probably goes well with American rice, which is a little harder. Japanese rice, on the other hand, dissolves too easily, so Japanese rice makes weaker koji and we reduce the amount of water use before steaming if using New York water.

How would you describe your relationship with the farmers at Isbell Farms? Do you give feedback on the rice quality?

They take advice from Japanese farmers into account regarding rice and we feel that the quality of the rice is improving every year looking at the appearance and fermentation process.

How have the communities in Hyde Park and NY in general reacted to the sake?

People have a great reaction to our sake at tasting room, especially after we give the brewery tour. We give them the whole sake experience.

What techniques and projects are you most excited about now in sake making?

As a sake brewer, I want many people to drink Dassai Blue and find it that sake is delicious. There are still many people who doesn’t have good image of sake and its taste.

I'm also looking forward to the Hyde Park sake brewery tours being filled to capacity almost every day.

What I'm most excited about in this project is making sake in space, and ultimately making sake on the moon that is just as good as sake made on Earth in the future. 

Whoa, that's mind blowing and a great vision to have! We'll have an Umami Mart store right next to it, if that happens.

Thank you Miura-san, for taking the time to share your thoughts and visions for the future of sake. We are excited for our members to try Dassai 35 Junmai Daiginjo this month!