Ontario Spring Water Sake Company will be featuring 10 sakes at Kampai Toronto, which will take place on May 31, 2012 in the Fermenting Cellar, Distillery District, adjacent to our brewery.  While VIP tickets are long sold out, regular admission tickets can be purchased at www.kampaitoronto.com for $65 until midnight tonight, and $75 after that up to May 31.

Included in our sake lineup for Kampai are two new items: IZUMI Junmai Nigori (a luscious cloudy sake), and IZUMI Karakuchi (a dryer sake than our other offerings) which are both being offered for the first time to the public.  The full line-up is as follows:

Izumi NamaCho Junmai Sake (once-pasteurized big flavour, pear-like fruit essence, off-dry, in LCBO)

Izumi Genshu Junmai Sake (undiluted, 17%abv, deep and long flavour, LCBO this summer)

Izumi NamaNama Unpasteurized Sake (our Signature unpasteurized sake, bold flavoured balance of residual fruity sugar and fresh acidity)

Izumi Teion Sakura Unpasteurized Sake (a low temperature ferment sake, wine-like with greeen apple fruit notes)

Izumi Karakuchi Unpasteurized Sake (dry, strong, with subtle fruit notes)

Izumi Junmai Nigori Sake (cloudy, luscious)

Izumi Second Spring Single-Tank Sake (very bold and delicious, our undiluted brew #18)

Izumi Arabashiri First-Press Sake (delicate, light and elegant)

Izumi Fukurotsuri Bag-Drip Sake (none-stress drip method sake is soft, smooth with fruity residual sugar)

Izumi Shiboritate Just-Pressed Sake (as fresh as sake can be, bold and youthful)

All of these sakes will also be available for sale at our brewery store, located in the Distillery District adjacent to the Fermenting Cellar where Kampai is taking place.  We are open before, during and after Kampai Torontoon May 31 – come check out a real sake brewery to see how sake is made!

We look forward to seeing friends old and new at Kampai Toronto!

With all the buzz surrounding the upcoming Kampai Toronto Festival of Sake, which will take place adjacent to our brewery on May 31, we thought it would be good to update our customers on the brewing/pressing cycles leading up to the big day.

Batch #21 is now in day 8 of its brewing cycle and will likely be pressed around May 23-25, while Batch #22 is now in day 4 with a forecasted pressing date of May 27-29. That means that Kampai participants will very likely be able to enjoy at least 2 just-pressed sakes!

While it is difficult to get very precise in these matters, it is possible that Batch #23 will actually be undergoing pressing during Kampai, which would certainly be a fun part of the brewing process for participants to be able to see, and of course to taste! Batch #23 is also somewhat of a historical batch for us, as it marks the first time we have used the aromatic #9 yeast (all of our batches to date have used, and we will continue to use, yeast #7, which was first isolated by our consulting brewery Masumi in 1947). Stay tuned as we update the progress of this newest brew.

During Kampai, our brewery, tasting bar and retail store will be open before, during and after the festival. We will offer a special tasting tour schedule for May 31, adding to our regular 5pm tasting tour on that day.