Kentucky has made a name for itself in bourbon over the course of two centuries, but a new brewery is banking its future on a vastly older spirit — sake.
The Void Sake Co. celebrated its one year anniversary in June. Located at 949 National Ave. in Lexington, Kentucky, the beverage startup makes different styles of the traditional Japanese drink prepared from fermented rice.
Justin LeVaughn, one of Void's three owners, said some people still have a hard time viewing sake as a Kentucky product.
“When we tell the general public about it, we get more of an intrigued look," LeVaughn said. "They're curious about why we would do something like it, but then we let them taste the sake and decide for themselves. It's a delicious beverage and we really enjoy having the opportunity to share it with people and change people's minds."
Void offers two styles of traditional sake: Junmai, the clear sake that is most commonly found in restaurants, and Nigori, a cloudy sake with a sweeter taste. The company also makes sake seltzers and Nigori products flavored with tangerine, vanilla and coffee.
Void products can be found at Liquor Barn and Total Wine & More locations throughout the state, and restaurants in Lexington and Louisville. The sake can also be purchased online and shipped to 44 states.
One of the places in Louisville where you will find Void products is Against the Grain, which has its own rice wine brand called River City Sake Co. The two breweries have even collaborated on a sparkling Junami sake.
Global sales of sake reached more than $9 billion in 2019, with the U.S. being one of the biggest export markets for the rice wine outside of Asia thanks to the popularity of Japanese cuisine. Even though sales slumped in 2020 due to the restaurant closures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. is still the third-largest sake market in the world, according to the website Wine Searcher.
Brandon Floan, one of LeVaughn's Void partners, said the company has benefited from the diverse student body at the University of Kentucky and the fact that Lexington has a large Japanese community because of the city's proximity to the Toyota manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky.
"We've had a number of Japanese nationals come in and they were really excited to try our sake and really enjoyed it," Floan said. "One of the most traditional Japanese traditional restaurants in town, Tachibana, picked us up pretty early. We just did a cold visit with them and they really enjoyed it and ordered on the spot."
Floan is the co-founder of Ethereal Brewing in Lexington, where LeVaughn also works as a brewer. Floan's friend Joe Rice is the other co-owner of The Void Sake Co.
Floan admits that he was a sake skeptic himself until he and LeVaughn started experimenting at Ethereal with Koji, a mold that grows on rice that's used in fermented foods in Asia.
“We kind of discovered Koji, which is the magical fungus that helps us make sake and we started messing around with that,” Floan remembered. “We started making some sake on the side, and then we got our good buddy Joe on board. And yeah, we decided to take the leap and actually open up Kentucky's first sake brewery.”
Floan declined to reveal how much they invested to start the business, but he said it was privately funded between the three owners. They brew their sake in a warehouse that includes a 1,000-square-foot taproom, which can seat about 50 people inside and another 20 outside.
The company has three employees, two bartenders and a marketing person.
LeVaughn said sake is a lot more labor intensive than brewing craft beer.
"With like beer and wine, it's a very sterile and hands-off process, but Koji requires a lot of hands-on processes, even though we're still hygienic and clean," LeVaughn explained. "Brewing sake it's all open top — we have to handle the rice, handle the koji. So, basically throughout the whole process, we are continually assessing it and handling it."
Void entered its Junmai and Nigori sakes in the New York World Wine and Spirits Competition in 2021. Both received silver medals.
"That was a really nice surprise," LeVaughn said. "Those competed against both Japanese sakes and American craft sakes."
