Abe Shuzo· 阿部酒造

Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture · Est. 1804

There is a version of this story that ends in 2013, when Abe Shuzo was quietly approaching closure; a small, ageing brewery in Kashiwazaki producing barely 40 koku a year, with no clear future in sight. Instead, Yuta Abe came home. The sixth-generation heir left his career in Tokyo, returned to the family brewery with almost nothing but curiosity and determination, gathered a young team with an average age of around 28, and set about building something that Japan's sake world had not quite seen before.

The result is one of the most talked-about and sought-after breweries in the country. In Niigata, a prefecture with over 80 sake producers and some of Japan's most established names, Abe Shuzo is currently one of the most popular. Getting hold of a bottle requires patience, connections, or luck. Even in Japan.

What Yuta Abe built is guided by four principles: support a meal from beginning to end, always enjoy fermentation, aim to be overwhelmingly delicious, and always be a challenger. That last point is not decoration. The brewery uses only Niigata-grown rice and Niigata yeast, with 70% of the rice farmed within Kashiwazaki itself. To achieve this they work with local farmers across specific fields, releasing field-specific brews that trace each sake to a named plot of land. Sake lees are returned to those same farms as fertilizer, or transformed into products like the now-famous Abe Cola or his Hashira-Shochu. Experimentation is constant: sparkling sake fermented with yuzu, kijoshu layered with shochu lees, collaboration bottles with fashion brands. No style is off-limits if it can be brewed with genuine intent.

But perhaps Yuta's most lasting contribution is what he has done for others. Since 2017, Abe Shuzo has opened its doors to a steady stream of young people who want to start their own sake breweries. Accepting them as trainees, teaching them the full process, and sending them out into the world ready to build something of their own. The alumni of this programme have gone on to found some of Japan's most exciting new craft breweries, and they carry a shared sensibility about fermentation, community, and courage. The people who know them call them the "Abe Mafia" and it is a compliment of the highest order.

One more thing worth knowing: Abe Shuzo follows the rare tradition of uchi-toji; the master brewer role passed entirely within the family, father to son, without brewery school or outside instruction. No Toji has ever learned anywhere else. The sake tastes like it.