Where we're from
Kanpai exists to create distinct London-style sakes, using traditional Japanese techniques. Following a whirlwind year and a half as the UK's first sake brewery (with awards to boot!) our aim now is to make more of the good stuff and to launch a casual bar in which everyone can come and discover sake.
Since falling in love with sake in Japan on brewery visits and within relaxed izakayas, we've spent years learning the intricate ways to brew it. We're passionate to bring this unique rice brew into the homes and tables of the UK and further afield. We've put all of our energy, blood, sweat and tears into Kanpai to develop unique and creative sakes - such as our hopped sparkling FIZU - and brought sake to new exciting places such as festivals, craft beer shops and burger joints. If you like your flavoursome beers and craft gins, we think you'll enjoy craft sake too, bursting with umami.
We simply wouldn't be here today without the support of so many generous people – in time, taste-buds and consumption! We think it’s time to give back to those who have joined us so far on the sake revolution and officially welcome you to the Kanpai family with a special home we can enjoy together.
Where we're heading (with you!)
We've rapidly outgrown our nanobrewery, and now we’re excited to make the leap to a much larger premises to produce even more craft and experimental sake – and most importantly to build a tap room so you can come and enjoy super fresh sake, overlooking where it's made.
We have located a perfect spot just a stone's throw from Peckham Rye station. Copeland Park is the beating heart of Peckham; a creative hub with a wonderful mix of cultures and many places to hang-out with friends and family. Our unit is a blank canvas and needs some serious TLC to set up a brewery and tap-room bar.
Our dream for the bar is to serve our sakes super fresh – in their truest form: unpasteurised and spritzy, on keg by the glass. We’ll serve our flagship range plus small experimental batches to hear what you think. You can try them at all temperatures and on taster sets to discover your favourite styles, plus mixed into cocktails. But it’s not all about us. We fell in love with sake in Japan and we can’t wait to share with you the fascinating range available, as we champion guest sakes on regular rotation. On top of that we’ll have craft Japanese beer and craft Japanese spirits (did someone say whisky?) and it wouldn’t be right to enjoy all this drink without Japanese soul food – expect ramen, onigiri and much much more as we invite our amazing chef friends down to play.
On top of this, we’ll also have the opportunity to create an events space to host supper clubs, tasting nights and workshops – such as ways to use our sake kasu in ferments, pickles and even soap! We want it to be a platform for anything inspired by Japan so expect some beautiful crafts, food and fashion.
Where your pledges go
Dreams come for free, but creating a brew space from a bike shop certainly doesn’t! £22,000 is the basic funding we need to help get a bigger brew tank, lay new flooring, create drainage and make a start on getting custom steaming and squeezing machinery made. All of this enables us to make more and higher quality sake. And thanks to mates rates, it’ll also get us a way towards the plumbing, electrics, cold room and woodwork required to launch the tap-room bar up on the mezzanine.
The brewery space needs to be purpose-built to create this unique and special drink with its multiple specialist stages. Also, by having more room we’ll be able to host brewery workshops and tours – something we know a lot of people have been keen to do, and it’s been killing us not to be able to open our doors to you all. With your pledges, we can get in extra kit and ingredients to get you involved.
Where you get rewards
Not only does your support help drive the sake revolution, we hope you enjoy the range of bespoke rewards as our way of saying THANK YOU: from t-shirts, to events, workshops and new brews. You can also think of it as a wise investment as we’re giving you the chance to increase the value of your money in Kanpai vouchers!
You guys might be asking why we aren’t crowdfunding for equity and the answer is simply that we’re not at that stage yet – we’re still a small start-up (we do absolutely everything just the two of us – including designing labels and delivering our bottles!) so we simply don’t have the means for the legal fees and financial reporting involved. But you can be sure when we’re ready our Kanpai family will have the option to buy in first!
Where we say 'arigato'
We have been truly humbled by the support and kind words on the journey so far - the inspirational people we've met and the energy you provide have kept us going! We’re hoping together we can take this next stride forwards in the sake revolution and enjoy lots of fun, learnings and delicious sake together.
We can’t wait to toast ‘kanpai’ with you soon!
Thank you so much for joining us,
Tom and Lucy
Keep in touch with us @kanpailondon and #sakerevolution
Made from just rice, koji, water and yeast, all Kanpai London Craft Sake is:
Small batch | High quality | Sulphite-free | Gluten-free | Preservative-free | Vegan