How long sake keeps and how to store it

Sake carries no best-before date, but as a guide a sealed bottle of pasteurised sake is at its best for about a year after you buy it, nama-chozo and nama-zume for about six months, and unpasteurised namazake for about three months in the fridge. Once opened, finish namazake within about a week and other sake within about a month.

Why is there no best-before date?

Japanese labelling rules allow alcoholic drinks to leave out the best-before date. Alcohol keeps them from spoiling, so there is no day on which a bottle suddenly becomes undrinkable. What the label does show is the bottling date (製造年月). Despite the Japanese wording, it is the month the sake was bottled, not brewed.

How long does a sealed bottle keep?

What matters most is how many times the sake was pasteurised (hi-ire).

These are not use-by dates; they tell you how long the sake tastes the way the brewer meant it to. Namazake has never been pasteurised, so keep it in the fridge, as the 要冷蔵 ("keep refrigerated") on its label says.

And once it is open?

Air slowly takes away the aroma and changes the taste. Aim for about a week for namazake and about a month for everything else. Close the cap firmly and keep the bottle in the fridge. Some sake actually softens and opens up a few days after opening.

Where to keep it: light, temperature, position

• Out of the light: sunlight and fluorescent light spoil colour and aroma. Keep the bottle in its box or wrap it in newspaper. Brown and green glass is common for the same reason.
• Cool and steady: namazake always goes in the fridge. Nama-chozo, nama-zume and delicate ginjo are happier there too if you have the room.
• Upright: lying down, the sake touches the cap, can pick up its smell and is more likely to leak. Unlike wine corks, sake caps don't need to be kept moist.

What happens to old sake?

The colour deepens from pale yellow to amber, and an aroma of caramel or soy sauce appears, called hineka. It isn't harmful, just a matter of taste. Warming can make such sake pleasant again, and it is fine for cooking. But if a sake that isn't meant to be cloudy turns milky and smells sour, it may have been spoiled by lactic bacteria (hiochi). Don't drink it.

What about shochu and awamori?

Honkaku shochu and awamori are strong distilled spirits: sealed or open, they keep for a long time as long as the cap is closed. Room temperature away from direct sunlight is fine. In the cold they can turn cloudy; that is flavour-carrying oil from the ingredients setting, and it clears when the bottle warms up again. Aged awamori (kusu) even gets rounder the longer it rests. How awamori is made