Sake is People
In 2024, Reuben Oh and Yumika Yamamoto, a husband and wife united by their love of sake, came together to build Singapore’s first sake brewery - a seemingly impossible task to many people at that time.
For Reuben, he had been exploring ways to bring sake culture out of Japan into a space where open creativity can be fostered outside of the heavy traditional ruleset that governs the beverage in its homeland. For Yumika, it was a love of koji and a desire to evangelise it to the world.
Together, sake meant more than just the land one came from, or the different microbial factors that its ingredients lent it - it was a beverage turned and molded by the hands that made it. Sake, in the end, is about people.
Our Core Values
Brewing for everyone
We understand that though sake brewing is a Japanese art, brewing itself is an international art. As such, we regularly employ people of many different nationalities so as to include fresh perspectives into the process.
We also understand that we need a deep pool of shared knowledge, and that Japanese tradition is key. We invite all sake breweries in Japan to share their knowledge with us through visitation and collaborations, while letting them experience the cultural melting pot that is Singapore.
We want sake brewing to be an universal profession, to move the industry forward.
Innovating further
Keeping our production process out of Japan allows us to experiment with many ways of creating sake that will otherwise be impossible in the Japanese sphere. Experimenting and creating brews that play with ingredients from across the South-east Asia region introduces a new depth into sake that has never been seen before.
This experimentation includes working with a myraid of local rices in the search for different methods of koji cultivation. All this done in a country known for its forward-thinkign innovation.
We seek new knowledge outside of borders to share it with the world.
Bridging cultures
Every country and its people have different tastes. We grow up eating different foods. we grow up having different drinks with those food. We follow the taste of our communities without knowing.
Orchid Sake Brewery strives to know, to use that knowing to break boundaries, and bring sake closer to what can be enjoyed by all communities. If it means adding a little bit of spice in your brew to bring a smile to your face, we’re all in. Sake, after all, is already proven to be one of the most versatile fermented beverages in the world.
Our crazy dream is to make sake a local drink, in every locale.