Beyond (720 ml)

When Hiroshi Sakurai launched the Dassai brand in 1990, he committed Asahi Shuzo to producing exclusively Junmai Daiginjo — no lower grades, no added alcohol, no seasonal shortcuts — a commercial bet considered reckless by the Japanese sake establishment. Dassai Beyond is the apex of that commitment: a Junmai Daiginjo whose polishing ratio is officially undisclosed, reportedly below the already extreme 23% seimaibuai of its sibling, and produced in only a few thousand bottles per year.

The brewery sits deep in the mountain valley of Shuto-cho, Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where the regional water — classified Seiryu (clear-stream) — is among Japan's softest. That mineral-lean, ultra-soft water is purified further on-site, then used to wash 100% Yamada Nishiki rice in 10 kg lots under running water, soaked to a precision-controlled absorption rate before fermentation. Koji is applied entirely by hand; moromi temperature is managed batch-by-batch in small individual tanks by permanent year-round staff — no seasonal toji, no automation at the critical stages.

At pressing, Dassai deploys a centrifuge — the first sake brewery in Japan to commercialize this technique — separating sake from mash without any applied pressure, preserving the most volatile aromatic compounds that conventional pressing destroys. Bottling follows the patented Hayata method (Patent 2013-008455): filled cold below 5°C, hot-shower pasteurized, then immediately rapid-cooled, locking freshness at the moment of peak expression. What no peer does: Beyond's polishing ratio is withheld entirely — the brewery refuses to let a number define the ceiling of what ultra-milling can achieve. Consume within the near term; Dassai releases no vintage dates by design.