Kanpai
Truly unique in the sake world, Kanpai London Craft Sake Brewery brings the joyful experimentation of modern craft beer brewing into the ancient world of sake, all with a particular London flavour.
At-a-glance
Established in 2017 by husband and wife team - Tom & Lucy Wilson
The first of only two breweries in the UK and the only brewery in London, located in Peckham (SE15)
Local, experimental styles taking inspiration from craft beer and spirit movements with seasonal sake and unique collaborations with local beer breweries
Lucy and Tom Wilson - the team behind Kanpai London Craft Sake Brewery in Peckham, London
Tom Wilson - Head Brewer, Kanpai London
History
During a stint as a hobbyist home-brewer of beer, co-founder Tom along with his now wife Lucy departed on a trip to Japan that changed the course of their lives forever. Like so many before them, during their trip they visited several izakaya and sake breweries. Experiencing brewery-fresh, unadulterated sake was an epiphany - the start of a new path in both their lives.
On their return, a passion was ignited and fervour of experimentation ensued:
"without even really knowing it, over about three years the spare room in our house had pretty much become a sake laboratory."
Moving the bedroom experimentation to a small industrial unit in their home ends of Peckham, word began to spread. After the illustrious Selfridges of Oxford Street took notice and struck a deal for their early brews, things really began to accelerate. In 2017 they raised an initial round of funding of Kickstarter (in which London Sake was a proud, albeit minor, contributor) to scale-up production, and they’ve never looked back.
In mid-2018, Kanpai moved into a bigger, two-floor unit in its current home of Copeland Park, Peckham, that allowed it to add a taproom to the brewery. Combined with the striking graffiti mural added to the steel shutters of the brewery by Dan Kitchener Kanpai quickly became establish as a Peckham landmark and local favourite.
"We're experimental at our core but the vast majority of our experiments have been around traditional sake-brewing techniques,"
- Tom Wilson, Head Brewer (foodism)
Timeline
2017
June - reach crowdfunding target & start commercial brewing Peckham
July - First commercial brew- Kanpai junmai & nigori
August - Sign first retail deal with Selfridges of London
September - Begin ‘sake supperclub’ collaborations
2018
April - FIZU first released
Jun - SUMI (junma)i & KUMO (Nigori) first released
July - SUMI awarded Bronze at IWSC and KUMO scoops silver in the London Sake Challenge
July - Launch second crowdfunding campaign for expansion
Aug - Moved to Copeland Park, Peckham & open taproom
2019
May - FIZU scoops bronze at IWC sake category
May - KIKU ultra-premium junmai daiginjo relased
May - Brewery & Taproom painted by artist Dan Kitchener
June - Amathus Drinks becomes UK distributor
July - Onna-Bugeisha sake inspired barrel-aged dry lager collaboration with Beavertown Brewery
July - FIZU scoops a Great Taste award
Aug - MIRU Premium junmai ginjo released
Sep - Ichi-go Ichi-e beer created using Kanpai sake lees by South West London brewer By The Horns
Oct - Sustainable Rice Revived release in collaboration with Sticks n Sushi
Visit their website here
