■About "Niigata Sakenojin"
Niigata Sakenojin was originally held in 2004 as a fiftys anniversary of Niigata Sake Brewers Association. They studied the biggest beer festival, “October Fest” of Germany and used it as reference. Our goal is that with the respect to our home country, people from outside of Niigata, abroad, and we all have fun with Niigata sake and local food.
By holding the event annually, Sakenojin have grown very much, and we were honored to have over 100,000 visitors for the two-day event in 2012. People can enjoy over 500 sake from about 90 brewers with local cuisine. We also have various stage performances and sake seminars with Niigata style.
Link to "Niigata Sakenojin official Page"
http://www.sakenojin.jp/english/
■About "Niigata Tanrei"
Right after WWII, people did not have much to eat and they tend to like somewhat heavy, sweet kind of sake. However, with Niigata’s severe winter temperature, the fermentation of sake in Niigata went fairly slow and the sake became crisp and dry, which did not stand out at the time. With the condition, now the popular sake rice, "Gohyakumangoku" was born and they started to make more refined clean taste sake.
This is the reason "Niigata Tanrei" was born. The life has become affluent and gradually this crisp dry style, "Tanrei" became popular.