What’s good sake to try for begginers

Hello I am wanting to try sake and am curious about what sake you would recommend for begginers.

Hakkaisan is pretty good and seems to be readily available outside of Japan

cheap Sake feel you drunk.Sinshu(�VŽð) is fresh taste and easy to drink.There are four seasons in Japan, now it is winter.Drinking hot Sake in winter is a cultural event in Japan.

If you are outside of Japan, it is difficult to sample large variety of sake. If you are in Japan or plan to visit, then you are in luck with so many varieties readily available.

There is a beginner's guide in this web site that is worth reading:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2037_sake.html

I am in agreement with the most of above article, except for the section on polishing of rice. It states that the more it is polished, the more flavorful the end product becomes. I would substitute the word "flavorful" with "clean tasting". When more of the rice is polished away, you taste less of the rice, thus resulting in cleaner taste.

For beginners, you can roughly characterize a sake by two factors: [a] dryness, and [b] acidity.

[a] Dryness (or sweetness) is related to the glucose (sugar) content - less sugar means more dry sake. Most sake label lists nihonshudo (explained in the referenced article), typically from -20 to +20, and more positive number means more dry sake. More sugar also usually means lower alcohol percentage.

[b] Acidity (sando Ž_“x) is listed on some sake labels, but not all. Acidity of about 1.5 is considered "neutral". Higher acidity results in more rich body, lower acidity results in cleaner taste.

When the bartender or chef asks what kind of sake you would like, and if you are not familiar with any brand of sake, you can specify those characteristics: dry/sweet (karakuchi/amakuchi, �hŒû/ŠÃŒû), and rich/clean (noukou/tanrei, ”ZŒú/’W—í).

Hakkaisan recommended by another post is generally known for their slightly dry and clean taste. It's pretty popular and availability is good outside of Japan. I visited their brewery in Niigata about 6 months ago, and it is one of my favorite, too.

Enjoy!

Go to a few places that sell it by the glass.
Try a few sakes and talk to the servers about them.
Check out some sake sites on the web.
You'll get an idea of what you like, and can kick on from there.

Read all, and back to R.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake
https://www.reddit.com/r/Sake/

Is there no "real" Japanese restaurant in PA or around?

Honestly not sure if there are any real Japanese restaurants I tried the snow maiden nigori sake not to bad, I have sweet taste buds so I wana try a sweet sake with a nice mellow flavor.

Cheap sake tastes like metho. Expensive stuff is better. I actually prefer plum sake, which is a little sweet.

�gSake�h is certainly, like �gwine�h in English, used as general word for alcoholic drink, but here in this thread, I think you are talking about Japanese fermented �grice wine�h, aren�ft you?
I don�ft know what �gplum sake�h is, but if you mean �gumeshu�h, it is not a properly called sake. In Japan, sake lovers, ordinarily, don�ft drink �gumeshu�h, by preference.

Japan Guide explanation and Nonn Bay�fs explanation are very good.
Personally, I love a tanrei-karakuchi �i’W—í�E�hŒû�jtype of sake, that is, around +4, +5 (or a little over) by dryness, and around 1,2-1,4 by acidity, and I drink very chilled like white (grape) wine. The combination of dryness and acidity gives a very large variety of taste.
When I want warmed sake, in winter, I take ordinarily honjozo type of sake(a amall amount of alcohol added) rather than junmai type of sake (rice only).
As for price, for your reference, I usually pay around 3,000 yen or a little higher for 1.800 ml. bottle, or a little lower sometimes.

I advise never to buy �gbrick packed�h cheap sake, and not to choose sake (even bottled) without no indication of dryness and acidity.
For beginners, mild ginjo type would be better.

This is a decent enough site for some sake information: http://sake-world.com/about-sake/
If there aren't any Japanese restaurants near you, then I guess you might need to try and see if you can get any sake at home by mail-order. There are a few places which do that in the UK, but maybe you're not so lucky.


(And just to clarify - I'm from the UK, and we don't use "wine" as a general term for all alcoholic drinks. We use it 99.9% of the time for grape-based fermented drinks (and 0.01% of the time for fermented drinks made with other fruits or vegetables - e.g. parsnip wine))

Yea I'm from the US and even though is Japan the term sake refers to all alcoholic beverages we refer to sake as fermented rice wine.

I thought wine sometimes meant alcoholic beverage in general. This comes from the Japanese title of the American movie "The days of wine and roses". But I know now it is a misunderstanding. Thank you for your kind correction.

Interesting phrase (days of wine and roses).
Coined by largely forgotten symbolist poet and alcoholic Ernest Dowson- who was also the man who minted the phrase (in a much better poem, IMHO) "gone with the wind".
But this is definitely off topic...