Sake World Nav Line
Return to Sake World Homepage sakeshiddenstories
About Sake Menu
Over 200 Stories Online
About John
Copyright John Gauntner at Sake-world.com

 
Sake no Koto

Sign Up for Free Sake World Newsletter

Announcing the release of ...

Sake's Hidden Stories

a new ebook by John Gauntner
$14.99

Sake Taru

I am very pleased, if not relieved, to finally announce the publication of my new ebook, Sake's Hidden Stories, subtitled The Personalities, Philosophies, and Tricks-of-the-Trade Behind the Brew.


Read a third-party, unsolicited blogger review here.
Read another one here. And yet another one here!
Three respected food and drink bloggers all gave
Sake's Hidden Stories the thumbs up!


I have been working on this book for close to a decade, and have had it "close" to publishing for almost that long. But publishers today are very picky, and if a book does not have a massively wide appeal, it is hard to get them excited. Several expressed interest but then wanted me to rewrite and restructure it to give it that massively broad appeal, which of course would turn it into something other than the book I wrote. "Add this, include a section on that, and take out that stuff. Otherwise, your audience is too small." I realized that traditional publishing would not allow me to convey what I felt was begging to be conveyed to the world about sake.

When then I seriously considered self-publishing it in ebook form, I had to first trudge up that learning curve of tools, processes and market realities surrounding all that. After learning the ebook ropes, I had to be fastidious about editing and design, which was no mean feat for me. Well, it's done, it's done my way, and I am sure you will like it.

Sake's Hidden Stories will give you a view to what goes on in the sake industry behind the brew we all love so much. The book goes into stories much deeper than the information we most commonly encounter; way beyond simply what ginjo-shu is, what junmai-shu is, or what the role of koji is. You will learn about the personalities behind the Sake Tasting Cupssake. You will see in just how much detail some brewers make sake, and how each is different in where importance is placed. And most significantly, something that has not been written about in any book on sake in English, you will meet more than a dozen brewers, and encounter their personalities. You'll see what makes them tick, what drives them in their work, and how their histories and idiosyncrasies affect the sake they brew.

Make no mistake: the personality of a brewer - be it kuramoto or toji - has as much to do with the final sake as does the rice, the water, the yeast, or the climate.

What's inside? You'll meet "The Sake Nazis," the Tanaka brothers of Daishinshu in Nagano, who brew with regimented discipline and passion. You'll listen to Kosuke Kuji, the seminal essence behind Nanbu Bijin, whose energy and intelligence know no bounds. And you'll hear the story of Takashi Aoshima, stock market analyst turned sake brewer.

You'll learn much about sake along the way as well. You'll learn tons about rice from Ujita-san, the owner of Tama no Hikari, heaps about milling from one who did it by ear, literally, as well as the massively labor -intensive "flat milling" methods employed by the brewer making Daishichi. And you'll encounter one brewer who somehow manages to do everything - brewing and sales - alone.

And there is plenty about Japanese culture - from which sake cannot be separated - as well. Learn about traditional inherited names passed on from brewer to brewer, study a bit about toji guilds, and read of one brewer, Yasutaka Daimon, who fled his inheritance to live as an ascetic in India for years before returning to continue his family's traditions.

And of course, there is much more. In all, thirteen breweries and the people behind them are presented. The stories include photos highlighting the relevant issues that will surely bolster the feeling behind them.

 Know nothing? No problem!
 DSC02217
Even if you are totally new to sake, you'll find this book solves your problems. The very first chapter teaches you all the basics of sake and prepares you for the rest of the book. How to choose a sake, what to drink, how it is made, temperature, vessels, sake and food and much, much more are covered in the very first chapter in readable, easy-to-understand prose. That chapter alone is worth the price of the entire book, being as it is all-you-need-to-know-about-sake, bolstered with diagrams of production and grades.

Click here to order Sake's Hidden Stories and learn about so much more than the brew itself, for only $14.99.

As always, with any product I offer, should you find it dull, boring, thoroughly un-educational, and not worth what you paid for it, I offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you are not satisfied for any reason whatsoever, just let me know, and your money will be promptly and cheerfully returned. No questions asked!

So click here now to secure your instant download of Sake's Hidden Stories, at the special price of  but $14.99, and learn more than  any seminar can teach you. 

ABOUT THE PRODUCT:
The ebook Sake's Hidden Stories will be delivered via direct download, and is in Adobe pdf format. The download itself should take no more than one minute, assuming you have a high speed internet connection.

 About the Authorminime33
Sake's Hidden Secrets is written by John Gauntner, the world's premier sake educator and the world's leading non-Japanese authority on sake. He lives at "sake ground zero," in Japan, where he has been for over 20 years, the last 15 of which he has been working and moving about in the sake-brewing industry. In the Japan media he is called the Sake Dendoushi, or "Sake Evangelist" for his diligent efforts to promote Japan's traditional beverage, along with the culture that suffuses it. Through his work and for it, he constantly communicates and interacts with the brewers, toji and consultants of the industry seamlessly in the local lingo. No other non-Japanese has visited as many breweries or had as much contact, interaction and access to the industry as he.