Sho Chiku Bai Ocean View, Skyline and Rei Nigori: Sake Brewed in Berkeley

Three of the sakes on our list are not from Japan. They are from Berkeley, California, and one of them is doing something genuinely unorthodox.

Takara Sake USA

Takara established Takara Sake USA in Berkeley in 1983, brewing under the Sho Chiku Bai name.

The location is where the Ocean View bottle gets its name. The part of Berkeley the brewery sits in was historically known as Ocean View, a diverse neighborhood looking out over San Francisco Bay.

American sake gets dismissed reflexively, which is lazy. California grows excellent short-grain rice, the water is good, and a brewery that has been running for forty years is not a novelty operation.

Ocean View, and the White Koji Question

This is the interesting one.

Koji is the mold that converts rice starch into fermentable sugar, and it is the reason sake exists as a category. Nearly all sake uses yellow koji, Aspergillus oryzae. That has been the standard for centuries.

Ocean View uses white koji instead.

White koji is the mold traditionally used for shochu and awamori, not sake. Its defining trait is that it produces large amounts of citric acid. In Kyushu and Okinawa that acidity is a practical necessity: it protects the mash from spoilage in a hot climate, which is exactly why the southern distilling traditions adopted it.

Bringing it into sake changes the acid profile completely. Ocean View comes out bold and refreshing, with a citric brightness that ordinary sake does not have. It reads closer to a crisp white wine in structure, and it holds up next to seafood in a way that a soft, low-acid junmai cannot.

If you have read our posts on shochu and awamori, this is the same mold, doing the same job, moved into a different drink.

Skyline Junmai

The counterpart to Ocean View, and a different flavor idea: a complex mix of fruity, savory and floral notes rather than a single bright acidic line.

The two are sold together as a set for a reason. They are designed to be tasted against each other, and doing that is the fastest way to understand what koji choice and brewing decisions actually change.

Rei Nigori

Nigori is coarsely filtered sake, so rice solids stay in suspension. That is where the cloudiness comes from and where the texture comes from.

This one is velvety and semi-sweet, with tropical fruit and rice notes and a finish that clears faster than the sweetness leads you to expect. Shake gently before pouring, since the sediment settles.

How to Drink Them

All three well chilled.

Ocean View in a wine glass, where the acidity has room. Skyline the same. Rei Nigori in a small glass, and it is the one that works over ice if you want it lighter.

Pair Them With

Ocean View with seafood, oysters and anything raw. Skyline more broadly. Rei Nigori with spicy food, where the sweetness and the texture do useful work against chili heat.

Try It at Juraku

The Sho Chiku Bai bottles are on the sake list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Check the current menu or ask us what is open.