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50 free Sake trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This sake trivia quiz covers Japan's national drink, the rice brew that is neither wine nor beer but something with a chemistry all its own. The easy questions cover what it is made from, the country, the cups it is drunk from and whether it is served hot or cold. From there the quiz moves into the brewing: the koji mould that turns starch to sugar, multiple parallel fermentation, the three-stage mash, the yeast that matters more than the rice, polishing ratios, the king of sake rice and the water of Nada. The hard end covers the temple that invented clear seishu, the oldest brewery still running, the Edo brewers who moved to the coast, ginjo's fruity yeast No. 9, the toji brewmasters, junmai and genshu and namazake, koshu and kijoshu, the cedar sugitama, kagami biraki, toso at New Year, Sake Day, UNESCO recognition and the export boom. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry on sake before publishing and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. Our Japan, beer and wine quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is removed from the rice by polishing before it is brewed into sake?
The bran
The outer layers hold the fats and proteins that would give off-flavours; the starchy core is what brewers want.
Q 02Although it is called rice wine, sake's production process is more like that of which drink?
Beer
Starch must first be converted into sugar, whereas wine ferments sugar already present in fruit.
Q 03What is the sake-brewing process called in which starch becomes sugar and sugar becomes alcohol in one vat?
Multiple parallel fermentation
In beer the two conversions happen in separate steps and separate vessels.
Q 04What is the alcohol content of undiluted sake?
18-20% ABV
Most sake is diluted with water before bottling to around 14 to 16 percent; undiluted sake is called genshu.
Q 05What is the usual Japanese term for the drink English speakers call sake?
Nihonshu
In Japanese the word sake can mean any alcoholic drink; the law labels the rice brew seishu.
Q 06What is the name of the mould whose spores are scattered on steamed rice to make koji?
Aspergillus oryzae
The same fungus is used to make miso and soy sauce; it releases amylases that break starch into sugar.
Q 07Which ingredient is said to affect the flavour of sake even more than the rice?
The yeast
Yeasts produce flavour compounds such as ethyl caproate and isoamyl acetate; the Hakutsuru brewery lab keeps 400 strains.
Q 08Which rice variety, first produced in 1923, is called the 'king of sake rice'?
Yamada Nishiki
It ranks first in production among more than 123 varieties of sake rice.
Q 09How does sake rice differ from ordinary table rice?
Larger grains with less protein and fat
Small or weak grains break during the heavy polishing sake demands.
Q 10What effect does soft brewing water typically have on sake?
A sweeter brew
Hard, mineral-rich water is known for drier styles; iron in water produces off-flavours and a yellow tint.
Q 11What is the name of the famous brewing water source in the Nada-Gogo district of Hyogo Prefecture?
Miyamizu
Its discovery drew many producers to what is still Japan's biggest sake region.
Q 12In which prefecture is Nada-Gogo, the largest producer of modern sake?
Hyogo
Brewers moved there from inland towns in the 1600s for its water and easy shipping to Edo, which drank 80 percent of its sake from Nada.
Q 13What is the three-step process of adding rice, water and koji to the fermenting mash called?
Sandan shikomi
The steps are hatsuzoe, nakazoe and tomezoe, spread over four days, followed by up to ten more days of fermentation.
Q 21Kijoshu, developed in 1973 for state banquets, replaces some of the water with what?
Previously brewed sake
The name is trademarked, so non-members of the Kijoshu Association call it saijo jikomi.
Q 22What wood is used for the casks in which taruzake is aged?
Japanese cedar
Because the wood imparts such a strong flavour, premium sake is rarely used for cask sake.
Q 23What is the ceramic flask from which sake is traditionally poured called?
Tokkuri
It is warmed in hot water for hot sake and poured into small cups; guests pour for each other rather than for themselves.
Q 14What is the job title of a sake brewmaster?
Toji
The word probably derives from a term for housewives and elderly women who supervised shrine maidens, since brewing was once women's work.
Q 15What does the label term 'junmai' tell you about a sake?
No distilled alcohol was added
Other premium sakes have a small, permitted amount of brewer's alcohol added.
Q 16How is ginjo sake fermented?
Slowly, for about 30 days at 5-10 C
The method gives fruity notes of apple, banana and melon, best enjoyed chilled.
Q 17Which yeast strain, isolated around 1953, gave ginjo sake its apple and banana aromas?
Kyokai No. 9
By about 1968 it was in use throughout Japan; ginjo only reached the market around 1975.
Q 18What is unpasteurised sake called?
Namazake
It needs refrigeration and can keep fermenting in the bottle, sometimes becoming fizzy.
Q 19What is 'nigorizake'?
Cloudy sake with rice sediment
It is passed through only a loose mesh, and its rice sweetness is prized.
Q 20What is koshu?
Aged sake that turns yellow and honeyed
Most sake does not age well, but this specially made type can mature for decades.
Q 24What is the square wooden box, originally a rice measure, that holds exactly one go of sake?
Masu
One go is 180.4 ml; generous servers place a glass inside and pour until it overflows into the box.
Q 25What is the traditional etiquette rule about pouring your own sake?
You should not; others pour for you
Pouring for oneself is called tejaku; pouring for each other is shaku, still observed at business meals and for the first drink.
Q 26At about what temperature is hot sake generally served?
50 C
Chilled sake is served around 10 C, like white wine; high-grade sake is not usually heated because aromas are lost.
Q 27What is the ball of cedar leaves traditionally hung outside a brewery when the new sake is made called?
Sugitama
It starts green and turns brown as the sake matures; many restaurants now hang them too.
Q 28What is the ceremony of breaking open a wooden sake cask with mallets at celebrations called?
Kagami biraki
The 'celebration sake' is served freely to all to spread good fortune.
Q 29What is the spiced New Year sake, made by steeping a herbal medicine mix overnight, called?
Toso
Even children take a sip, and in some regions the youngest drinks first.
Q 30What is sake offered to the gods in Shinto ritual called?
O-miki
On Children's Day, sake steeped with iris root is drunk to ward off evil spirits.