Sake lovers should strap in for a series of events that promise education as well as indulgence:
“The Birth of Sake”: Director Erik Shirai’s award-winning documentary on the making of Tedorigawa sake screens at 7 p.m. Friday at the Honolulu Museum of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre.
The 120-minute film was shot during a brewing season at Yoshida Shuzo, a family-owned brewery in Japan’s Fukui prefecture, a region where the frigid winters are deemed ideal for sake brewing.
The film won the prize as top feature documentary at the Palm Springs International Film Festival this year and earned a special mention for Shirai at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.
Following the screening will be a Q&A session with Shirai, who is also cinematographer for The Travel Channel’s “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain; master brewer Teruyuki Yamamoto; and Yamamoto’s heir, Yasuyuki Yoshida.
Samples of several Tedorigawa sakes will be served.
Tickets are $15 at 808ne.ws/saketickets.
Sake shopping: Yamamoto and Yoshida will make an appearance at the Sake Shop, 1461 S. King St., from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, where they will offer a free sampling of their brews. Bottles will be available for purchase as well. Call 947-7253.
Sake Fest: The Hawaii Prince Hotel hosts a sake tasting, 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, that will include sample sips of more than 50 types of sake, shochu and Japanese beer.
Along with the liquor, enjoy Japanese street food.
Tickets are $75. Reservations required; call 739-9463 or email JasonF@times-supermarket.com.
The Joy of Sake: Now in its 16th year, this event has grown into a three-city tour that bills itself as “the world’s largest sake celebration outside Japan.”
When the annual tasting returns to the Hawai‘i Convention Center on July 22, nearly 400 different types of sake will be poured alongside food from more than 20 local restaurants. The event will also feature an Izakaya Alley with “upscale Japanese street food” served in an outdoor setting.
The public tasting follows the private U.S. National Sake Appraisal, which also takes place here in July and features more than 160 sake breweries competing in a blind tasting by judges from the United States and Japan.
Tickets are $100.74, with a limited number of $153.24 early-access tickets also available. The higher-priced ticket gets you inside at 5:30 p.m., an hour before doors open to general-admission ticket holders. The tasting runs until 9 p.m. and is open only to those 21 and over. Tickets: joyofsake.com.
